It already has occurred.
Posted on 08/10/2017 12:49:29 PM PDT by Red Badger
In a striking advance that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might cause disease in humans.
The experiments, reported on Thursday in the journal Science, may make it possible one day to transplant livers, hearts and other organs from pigs into humans, a hope that experts had all but given up.
If pig organs were shown to be safe and effective, “they could be a real game changer,” said Dr. David Klassen, chief medical officer at the United Network for Organ Sharing, a private, nonprofit organization that manages the nation’s transplant system.
There were 33,600 organ transplants last year, and 116,800 patients on waiting lists, according to Dr. Klassen, who was not involved in the new study. “There’s a big gap between organ supply and organ demand,” he said.
Dr. George Church, a geneticist at Harvard who led the experiments, said the first pig-to-human transplants could occur within two years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
[ Yes, nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong...
It’s just an incredibly stupid idea, especially when genetic treatments that don’t involve creating chimeras may soon be available. See here for one amazing possibility. ]
That and 3D bio-printing will revolutionize the medicine field as long as the damned government gets the hell out of the way.
And there are (at least) thousands of people walking around with pig valves that replaced their heart valves.
Most of the cloned pigs died. One has made it to four months. Transplants from these pig clones is a long way from being a reality, but I’d be for it if they become viable.
It already has occurred.
The article said that the piglets are being grown in a sterile environment. If there are viruses that only infect pigs, not humans, it is unlikely those viruses would be able to infect a pig organ in a human body. The virus would have to get there through human tissues, and the human immune system would probably kill it. Although people's immune systems are suppressed as part of the transplant process.
I think there would be some danger from the retroviruses that are part of the pig genome (all mammals have retroviruses in their genomes) if those viruses are not part of the human genome.
Last, pigs have a sugar residue on the surface of their cells that is not on human cells. I wonder if the mention of genetically engineered pigs is in reference to removing that sugar to make the cells more compatible with human cells.
Hiya Muslims, step right up! We gots your pig parts right heah! Step right up!
Ya say ya had an appendage blowed up during a training mishap - well, we gots a little pork to fix ya right up!
In the future one must decide which to buy at Walmart, a new pig clone ear or a slab of bacon....
You can say that again!
The day he died the world became a bit dimmer
By the way, don't tell Iran.
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