Human Organs Grown in Pigs? Not so Fast!
Human Organs Grown in Pigs? Not so Fast!
A
A
A
LONDON - The controversial idea of growing human organs in host animals has gotten a reality check.
Despite recent successes at growing mouse organs in rats, using the same trick to grow human organs in larger animals such as pigs is a long way off, new research shows. The resulting human-animal chimeras don’t grow well, and few human cells survive.
"The hurdles are not unexpected," says Joe Zhou at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute who was not involved in the work.
"But despite the “very severe technical challenges. I’m optimistic. I think this particular path is promising,” he added.
As known, scientists have grown human cells inside pig embryos, a very early step toward the goal of growing livers and other human organs in animals to transplant into people.
The cells made up just a tiny part of each embryo, and the embryos were grown for only a few weeks, researchers reported Thursday.
![Human Organs Grown in Pigs? Not so Fast!]()
Such human-animal research has raised ethical concerns. The US government suspended taxpayer funding of experiments in 2015. The new work, done in California and Spain, was paid for by private foundations.
Any growing of human organs in pigs is "far away," said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, an author of the paper in the journal Cell.
He said the new research is "just a very early step toward the goal."
Even before that is achieved, he said, putting human cells in animals could pay off for studies of how genetic diseases develop and for screening potential drugs.
Animals with cells from different species are called chimeras (ky-MEER'-ehz). Such mixing has been done before with mice and rats. Larger animals like pigs would be needed to make human-sized organs. That could help ease the shortage of human donors for transplants.
Despite recent successes at growing mouse organs in rats, using the same trick to grow human organs in larger animals such as pigs is a long way off, new research shows. The resulting human-animal chimeras don’t grow well, and few human cells survive.
"The hurdles are not unexpected," says Joe Zhou at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute who was not involved in the work.
"But despite the “very severe technical challenges. I’m optimistic. I think this particular path is promising,” he added.
As known, scientists have grown human cells inside pig embryos, a very early step toward the goal of growing livers and other human organs in animals to transplant into people.
The cells made up just a tiny part of each embryo, and the embryos were grown for only a few weeks, researchers reported Thursday.
Such human-animal research has raised ethical concerns. The US government suspended taxpayer funding of experiments in 2015. The new work, done in California and Spain, was paid for by private foundations.
Any growing of human organs in pigs is "far away," said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, an author of the paper in the journal Cell.
He said the new research is "just a very early step toward the goal."
Even before that is achieved, he said, putting human cells in animals could pay off for studies of how genetic diseases develop and for screening potential drugs.
Animals with cells from different species are called chimeras (ky-MEER'-ehz). Such mixing has been done before with mice and rats. Larger animals like pigs would be needed to make human-sized organs. That could help ease the shortage of human donors for transplants.
(rnz)
Explore More