Posted on 11/07/2008 9:10:23 AM PST by BGHater
Organs from pigs could be widely available for transplanting into patients in a decade, Lord Winston said yesterday.
The first organs suitable for transplanting, most likely kidneys, are expected to be ready within three years and, if tests are successful, their use could be widespread by 2018.
A herd of as few as 50 pigs is expected to be kept as breeding stock to provide organs “to order” and to slash waiting times for thousands of people needing transplants.
Professor Winston, of Imperial College, London, and his collaborator, Carol Readhead, of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, are leading research into transplanting animal organs into people.
They are attempting to breed pigs that have been genetically modified so that porcine organs are accepted by the human body instead of being immediately rejected.
Human immune systems are quick to react to “foreign bodies” but the scientists are confident that they are close to modifying the genetic make-up of pigs to “humanise” their organs and make animal-to-human transplants possible.
The humanisation process of the organs is expected to be achieved by breeding genes into the pigs, probably by injecting them directly into the parent boar’s testicles, that provoke a greatly reduced response in the patient’s immune system.
Patients who received pig organs would have to take immune suppressant drugs for the rest of their lives, but no more than those who received organ transplants from other people.
Dr Readhead said it was comparatively easy to bring about such genetic modification in mice, but the process is much harder in pigs and other large animals.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Free to Muslims...
LOL, you beat me to it!!!
Three... at the very least.
Can I have mine with lettuce and tomato?
Nancy Pelosi already got a face transplant.
Kosher? I could use a new kielbasa.
LOL...good one!
Mandatory for mooslims.
This will offend Muslims. So if everyone can’t use them, then no one can.
Damn. I need to find someone to buy one of my kidneys
before that happens.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.