Donor organs are scarce, they are expensive and subject to the threat of rejection. The new method allows pig organs to be used for growing transplants.
Pork Liver Hope
Organ transplants are risky, time consuming and costly. Many people have been waiting for their turn for years, and many of them could not wait for the operation. There is a significant shortage of donor organs and the situation may worsen. But even if the transplant operation took place, there is a risk of rejection. As a new way to combat these problems, the concept of "growing" organs, that is, growing them from pig organs, which serve as a framework for the construction of organs intended for humans, has been proposed.
In the past, work has gone in two directions - growing organs from stem cells and genetically altering porcine organs. These efforts have significantly advanced the perspective of "grown" organs, and new research combining the two is very impressive.
Researchers at the American biotechnology company Miromatrix have developed a new technology in which pig organ cells break down so that only their protein scaffold remains. This allows you to maintain the original shape and structure of the organ. Human cells of three types are implanted into the resulting frame: liver, blood vessel walls and bile duct. Cells naturally take their place in the scaffold structure. Thus, from the layer-by-layer creation of tissue, we proceed to growing the entire organ.
Assembling organs
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At the moment, scientists have reported on the successful creation of a liver so far from pig cells. These first experimental organs, when transplanted into the pig body, are tested for the possibility of rejection. The likelihood of this is small, because the immune system does not recognize this tissue as foreign.
Experiments with human cells have already begun, using umbilical cord cells to recreate blood vessels in the liver frame. When the liver thus obtained was implanted into the pig, the vessels were preserved and allowed blood to flow through the walls of the scaffold until they were rejected by the presence of human cells.
This technique still has a long way to go, but the results are very encouraging. Laura Nicklason of Yale University uses this technique to create vessels and lungs. According to her, “the dissolution of cells and the introduction of new ones is not the most difficult thing. The tricky part is getting all the embedded cells to behave the way we want them to."
Apparently, this technique will develop, and we have a hope that in the future the line of those awaiting organ transplantation will become a phenomenon of the past.
Vadim Tarabarko