Scientists plan research pigs
Thu, November 13 2008
The experiments are being conducted by Robert Winston of Imperial College, London, and Carol Readhead, of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
Winston told The Times that “organs that might be transplantable” could be ready “within two to three years” and on the basis that the research went smoothly they would be fully licensed and tested in as little as 10 years.
Readhead said kidneys are likely to be the first pig organs that researchers attempt to transplant into a human.
“The kidney is a really good candidate,” she said. “There’s a huge shortage and it would make a big difference.”
Pigs are regarded as ideal for animal-to-human transplants, xenotransplantation, and other research because of the similarity in the physiological make-up and because they get many of the same diseases, such as diabetes.
The research may be moved to the U.S., as Winston’s team has been banned from mating and producing offspring from the transgenic pigs in Britain and the European Union.
Transgenic pigs are those which have been injected with genes to “humanize” their organs so that they are not rejected by the human body after transplants.
