Transplant organs from cloned pigs?
Transplant organs from cloned pigs?
THE birth of the Worlds first cloned piglets will bring the use of animal organs for human transplants closer.
The piglets – known as Mille, Christa, Alexis, Carrel and Dotcom – were born on March 5 as part of a project run by Edinburgh-based company PPL Therapeutics, which was responsible for creating Dolly the sheep.
Technology similar to that used to produce Dolly means the piglets were created from adult cells using nuclear transfer technology and procedures developed by staff in the companys US base.
Tests on the piglets DNA show it is identical to the donor, but different from their surrogate mother, says the BBCs News website.
Research was part-funded by the US government in an attempt to produce a pig which has a specific gene or genes inactivated to help prevent the human immune system rejecting an implanted pig organ, such as a heart.
The company says that now it can clone pigs successfully and can also target and inactivate genes, technology should allow it to produce pigs whose organs and cells can be successfully transplanted into humans. Clinical trials are expected to start within four years.