The ultimate silk purse

Researchers in China claim to have figured out a way to coax cells from any part of a pig's body -- they used cells from a pig's ear and bone marrow -- into any type of cell in the body, just like embryonic stem cells.

The breakthough could set the stage for pigs being raised to grow organs for humans for transplantation, the researchers say.

Lead researcher Dr Lei Xiao, of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, said many other attempts had been made to transform adult cells from animals such as pigs into "pluripotent" stem cells, but they had failed.

He said: "Therefore, it is entirely new, very important and has a number of applications for both human and animal health."

Dr Xiao's team reprogrammed cells taken from a pig's ear and bone marrow, using a cocktail of chemicals introduced into the cells via a virus.

Tests showed that the reprogrammed cells were capable of becoming any of the cell types that make up the three layers in a developing embryo.

Dr Xiao said pigs were a potentially ideal source of organs for transplant, as their organs were similar in function and size to those found in humans.

In its blog,the American Journal of Bioethcis quipped that the breakthrough could help save the pig's reputation after the swine flu scare.

Medical researchers have long looked to pigs as a potential source of human organs in a field known as xenotransplantation, saying it could help with chronic shortages of organs from transplant.

Professor Chris Mason, an expert in regenerative medicine at University College London, said: "This breakthrough to produce pig stem cells potentially reinvigorates the quest to grow humanised pig organs such as pancreases for diabetics and kidneys for chronic renal failure.

"The clinical use of humanised porcine tissues and organs (xenografts) has moved a long way forward in recent months with successful small-scale clinical trials.

There's a certain "yuck" factor for many people, however, and animal rights activists and religious groups have objected to the idea.

Dr Sebastien Farnaud, science director of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, said: "Persisting with highly speculative research that would see us use sentient animals as little more that living organ grow-bags, is not only ethically unsupportable but also scientifically dubious.

"Creating pig stem cells does not necessarily remove the risk of organ rejection but even more worrying is the risk of infecting patients and the wider public with pig viruses."

Comments

[Fred Reed]

I do not see the advancements made by claiming we can use pig cells for potential embryonic stem cell research in humans. The direction industrial agriculture is steering pigs are becoming more and more just a storage unit for dis ease and viruses.

TrueAid, Inc

[Willie]

This Medical Ethics blog is the most important blog on healthcare on the internet. This is outstanding work.

Thank You

[deana]

If medical experiments are done, they will be done... To debate the cessation of bad things, and demand that the government or religions ultimately do the monitoring is so weak. PEOPLE have to educate themselves and monitor the momentum of these things.

I absolutely believe that people have the right to accept a pig transplant if they want to. As long as they are informed. If everyone was informed and pig transplants were refused en masse, there would be NO more experimentation with pigs. Something else would spring up OR people would take better care of their health.

Conversely, if people don't inform themselves or trust their government and religions to tell them, things keep going regardless. All that happens in this case, is that we are lied to just a little bit less than the medical profession does to us. It's business you know, and the battle for minds and hearts.

Medical care is largely evolving because there is a market for trying to cure people who have messed up their organs by doing stupid indulgent things.

Genetic or congenital causes, for their part, can be solved by the autonomous prevention of pregnancy in people who know they might pass on something to a yet unconceived child. This is difficult at present because the marketplace has turned a newborn into a product and people feel entitled to glow with a "baby bump" or one of those huge baby pushcarts.

Birth defect problems could be alleviated by banishing sedation and other medical interference in gestation or the birth process, but again, people trust too much the image of bringing home that human product, and loving the defects as a sign of devotion. Ugh, it's all such a mess.

So yes, if we want a pig pancreas just as we wanted all those Big Macs, beer, chips, Coke, and cigarettes then we should get one. I stay away from bad food specifically to try to avoid being in the position of eyeing desperately a pig's guts. Similarly, I don't ever want to prey on a comatose person who can't defend himself against junkfood etc customers now standing in line for his bodyparts.

It's so simple but it's gussied up as ethics and handed down to us from on high. This too, is only because we put these shysters on pedestals. We have to take them down and bring to size. Like I did here. At least I do my part.