动物实验 z-bo 2020-08-25 538

　　According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), American scientists are trying to grow human organs in pigs. They transplant human stem cells into pig embryos to cultivate human pig embryos called "chimeras." According to the research team at the University of California, Davis, chimerism research aims to solve the global shortage of transplanted organs. The chimeric embryos of humans and pigs were bred in sows for 28 days, and then internal organs and tissues of the human body were removed for analysis by researchers. create

　　chimera embryo requires two steps. The first step is to use CRISPR gene editing technology to remove the gene responsible for producing the pancreas in the newly fertilized pig embryo, thereby creating a genetic "gap." The second step is to implant human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) into pig embryos. These human-induced pluripotent stem cells are derived from adult somatic cells and can grow into any human organ. The research team hopes that by taking advantage of the genetic "vacancies" in pig embryos, human stem cells will be able to grow from human pancreas.

　　In the United States, there are other research groups that have created chimeric embryos of humans and pigs, but they have not produced such embryos. Walter Lou, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota in the United States, said that pigs are an ideal "biochemical incubator" for cultivating human organs, saying that it can grow human organs. With the development of gene editing technologies such as cornea, xenotransplantation research has injected new energy. In the 1990s, scientists hoped that genetically modified pigs could provide patients with a stable flow of transplanted organs. However, due to concerns that humans may be infected with animal viruses, clinical trials were eventually terminated. Last year, a research team at Harvard Medical School used CRISPR gene editing technology to remove more than 60 porcine retroviruses. The head of the research team, George Church, believes that gene editing technology can make human organs raised in pigs safer, cleaner, and better than those provided by the human body.

　　There is no doubt that this kind of research is very controversial. Last year, the National Institutes of Health announced that it would stop funding such research. The main concern is that human cells may "float" into the developing pig brain, similar to the human brain. Research leader Pablooss thinks this is unlikely, but they will pay attention to this issue.