Cells have receptors —sorta like hooks, or keyholes.
Things touch those receptors/identifiers, and get a vague idea of what they just touched “was that gaijin, or non-gaijin stuff..?”
It’s a recognition technique to distinguish between SELF and NON-SELF. It matters cuz if it’s non-self then it could be an invader, in which case the immune system would schedule it for attack and elimination.
A pig heart has pig cells with pig cell RECEPTORS.
What if instead you could engineer a pig with heart cells that expressed HUMAN receptors, much like those of YOUR cells?
Stuff inside you would bump up against that non-diseased PIG heart, and they would get fooled:
“Oh, that’s human stuff, kay, no prob...” and there would be NO TISSUE REJECTION.
YOU KNOW HOW FREAKING VALUABLE THAT IS..?
People are imagining Bill Clintonesque goat-men walking around upright, with Pan-Flutes, and that’s just wrong.
(Hint: I don't approve of such, but I bet Daesh would then look for up close and personal ways of expressing their disapproval.)
Yeah. Wrong, Pan flutes went out a long time ago.
My aunt has a pig valve in her heart.