How Pigs Could Help People Who Need Liver Transplants

In this study, eGenesis scientists used CRISPR to make not one, but 69 edits to the pig genome: three to remove the most pig-like proteins that would activate the human system to reject the liver, seven edits to add human genes to the pig liver, and 59 to inactivate pig retroviruses that could cause problems in humans. “Until CRISPR, there was no way to do that many edits easily,” says Curtis. The future of pig livers This single-patient study is just the beginning of what xenotransplants can achieve, says Shaked. The liver has two major duties in the body: regulating critical enzymes and substances such as glucose and cholesterol, and filtering out toxins from the blood. This experiment focused on the latter, but in years to come, more sophisticated pig livers could eventually perform some of the more complex functions of the organ in human patients. The studies needed to get there are already underway. Shaked is optimistic that by the end of the year, after further testing, the first patients with liver failure could be trying the system. Hopefully, being hooked up to a pig liver will let their livers recover on their own, or hold them over while they wait for a transplant. “Based on what I saw,” he says, “I am encouraged.”
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news