Pigs could grow human organs in stem cell breakthrough which could solve organ shortage

Human organs could be grown inside pigs for use in transplant operations following pioneering research.

Undated handout photo of the world's first cloned pigs produced from cells that have been genetically modified. The five newborn cloned piglets could have a dramatic impact on attempts to transplant animal organs into humans, it was announced Wednesday April 11, 2001. The same technique might make it possible to create pigs bred for human transplants whose organs will not be rejected by patients' immune systems. Today's announcement was made by Edinburgh-based biotech pioneers PPL Therapeutics which last year introduced the world's first cloned pigs.

Scientists have found that by injecting stem cells into the embryo of one species, they can create animals that have organs belonging to another species.

The researchers injected stem cells from rats into the embryos of mice that had been genetically altered so they could not produce their own organs – and so creating mice that had rat organs.

The technique could eventually allow pigs to grow human organs from patient’s stem cells for use as transplants, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The method would help reduce the risk of the transplanted organ being rejected.

As it’s the patient’s own stem cells being used, the risk of the transplanted organ being rejected is minimised. It would also provide a plentiful supply of donor organs.

‘Our ultimate goal is to generate human organs from induced pluripotent stem cells,’ said Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi, director of the centre for stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the University of Tokyo in Japan and who led the research.

‘The technique, called blastocyst complementation, provides us with a novel approach for organ supply. We have successfully tried it between mice and rats.

‘We are now rather confident in generating functional human organs using this approach,’ he added.

The induced pluripotent stem cells are a type of adult stem cell which can be taken from a sample of tissue such as the skin and encouraged to grow into any type of cell found in the body.

Professor Nakauchi and his colleagues injected these cells taken from rats into the embryos, or blastocysts as they can be called, of mice that were unable to grow their own pancreas, the organ that produces important hormones including insulin.

When the mice matured to adulthood, they showed no signs of diabetes as they had developed a pancreas that was almost entirely formed from the injected rat stem cells.

The researchers claim the rat stem cells grew inside the mouse in place of the absent pancreas.

If replicated using human stem cells, the pancreas of diabetic patients could be replaced via this technique.