4 ms·
The number of normal pigs available isn't really significant... Even if you assume that the donor pigs wouldn't be heavily genetically engineered (and they pro
by bedward 8y ago
The number of normal pigs available isn't really significant...
Even if you assume that the donor pigs wouldn't be heavily genetically engineered (and they probably would be), the risk of xenogeneic infection (ie pig viruses being carried over to the patient) means that they'd have to be raised under sterile conditions, so normal pigs are useless.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC88959/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC88959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11041495 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11041495
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoThanks for the reply. Fair points. We’re not talking about xenotransplantation of living tissues though. Still, there would probably be a non-zero chance of xenoinfection from non-human non-cellular scaffold use in bioengineered organs. You’re probably right that if this were to become a use case for non-human parts the source probably wouldn’t be regular far animals.
- bedward 8y agoWe’re not talking about xenotransplantation of living tissues though. I appreciate that. I did have the idea that the stringency of the washes in decellularization wouldn't be enough to get rid of viruses. Looked into it and it turns out that might not be true. Washing might be enough: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12115437 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12115437 Not sure how compatible this is w/ the protocol used in the OP.