Pigs will become organ donors for humans
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Cultivation of organs is a promising source of bioengineering technology, based on the creation in the laboratory of fully functioning organs for transplantation to humans.
Scientists do not stop work in this direction and achieved significant results, for example, in test tubes, researchers managed to grow part of the heart, intestines, muscles and even the brain.
It is likely that in the coming decades, patients who need a transplant will not have to wait for months for a suitable donor.
Now scientists are making the first successful attempts to transplant artificial organs, which are grown from the patient's stem cells.
Artificial organs, according to the scientists themselves, are necessary not only to solve the problem with donors. Artificially created organs can help in studying the mechanism of development of some diseases, for example, in miniature human stomachs, which scientists managed to grow in the laboratory a couple of years ago, experts successfully study the development of diseases, in particular, ulcers and cancer tumors, and this, in turn , will allow to develop more effective methods of treatment of these diseases.
But today bioengineers offer to grow donor organs on a completely new technology. In Britain, the probability of growing organs for transplantation to humans is not in a test tube, but in the body of an animal. If researchers can prove that this approach to transplantation has great prospects, then the authorities can give permission for the use of animals for scientific purposes.
It is assumed that the new technology of growing organs for transplantation will get a person "good" from the authorities in the near future. In the United States, specialists have been working in this direction for quite a long time.
Experiments are conducted on pigs and sheep, which experts introduced embryos that have two DNA - human and animal. The main purpose of this experiment is the cultivation of animals whose organs will not only fit the person, but will not be rejected after the transplant. Studies are conducted at the universities of California and Minnesota, but researchers have not yet received any documentary evidence of the effectiveness of the new technology.
In the event that an unusual method of organ transplantation is approved, the UK will be the first to allow transplantation of organs grown by such an unusual method.
The lack of donor organs is acutely felt not only in the UK, but also in a number of other countries. In the overwhelming majority of cases, dying people (or their relatives) refuse to bequeath the body for the benefit of science or for the sake of saving other people. In addition, there is another problem - in recent years, more people are suffering from obesity, and the bodies in this case are unsuitable for transplantation.
It is also worth noting another problem of transplantology to date - many patients who need a transplant of one or another organ do not wait for a suitable donor and die.
Researchers believe that the method of growing organs in the body of an animal will help solve several problems and save lives for millions of people around the world.
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