The first step of the procedure uses CRISPR gene editing, which involves the removal of DNA from a newly fertilised pig embryo with the gene responsible to grow the organ needed in the transplant, (University of California, Davis is using the pancreas in its experiment), creating a genetic void.
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It was revealed today that in a futuristic Dr Frankenstein-like experiment, scientisist in the USA have injected human stem cells into pig embryos to produce human-pig embryos known as chimeras.
The goal is to one day be able to develop human organs inside the pigs that can later be used for people in need of a transplant.
The team from University of California, Davis says they should look and behave like normal pigs except that one organ will be composed of human cells.
A New York Medical College professor of cell biology and anatomy told NPR: “If you have pigs with partly human brains, you would have animals that might actually have consciousness like a human”.
The plans are controversial and past year the main USA medical research agency, the National Institutes of Health, banned funding for such experiments.
To create the human-pig embryos, the researchers used CRISPR to knock out the genetic information required for the fetus to grow a pancreas, resulting in a genetic “niche”.
Others have voiced concerns over the risk of humans being infected with pig viruses, and of pigs being made to suffer in “organ farms”. The researcher has admitted to finding human cells in several areas of the developing foetus but said they “struggled to compete” with the pig cells.
A team in Minnesota is trying to create dopamine-producing human neurons from pig embryos to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease.
This breakthrough will help solve the problem, but the embryos can not be matured past 28 days and no birth of a hybrid animal is allowed.
But critics say the development of such hybrids is “offensive to human dignity”.
“We are completely opposed to the use of animals to obtain organs for human transplantation”. As Peter Stevenson from Compassion in World Farming told the BBC’s Panorama program: “I’m nervous about opening up a new source of animal suffering”. “Let’s first get many more people to donate organs”, he said. But let’s go about this with the understanding that it’s a stop-gap measure and not a long term solution.
The team behind the research hopes the human stem cells will take advantage of the genetic niche in the pig embryo and the resulting foetus will grow a human pancreas.
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In the dystopian novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, adapted for the hit 2010 movie of the same name, a group of English children are cloned so that as young adults their organs can be used for transplants.
