Without a doubt, some of the most serious diseases are those that so badly affect human organs that the latter become unable to perform their function. Then you have to resort to transplantation. However, not every transplanted organ will take root due to the fact that a person's own immune system begins to attack a foreign organ. There are many techniques that suppress this process, but a group of scientists from the University of California at Davis (USA) suggests going another way: growing whole organs in sheep.
The Guardian writes about the new development, and, according to the authors of the work, growing human organs in animals in this way can solve the problem of incompatibility. In the course of their work, American scientists use human stem cells, which are introduced into sheep embryos at the sites of certain tissues. In this way, scientists hope that the implanted cells can develop into a healthy organ suitable for transplantation. According to one of the authors of the work, Dr. Pablo Ross, “Today, even ideally suited organs do not last long because the immune system is constantly attacking them. The only exception is the extremely rare case of transplants from identical twins. Sheep embryos were not chosen by us by chance, and their use has many advantages. First, the organs of sheep easily take root, which means that we need fewer embryos for the experiment. But the most important thing is that sheep and people have similar lungs and hearts in structure. And these are some of the most difficult organs to transplant."
Now a team of scientists will observe the embryos for 28 days. This time will be enough to follow the development of organs and see the first results on the formation of hybrid tissues. Depending on the results obtained, the team will adjust their further work on growing new organs. Many scientists believe that such research is an important step towards the development of transplantation.
Vladimir Kuznetsov