For the first time in the world, human kidneys were grown inside a pig embryo
Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in the field of transplantology - for the first time in the world they have grown human kidneys inside pig embryos.
The team of the Institute of Biomedicine and Health of Guangzhou (China) first created "chimeras" – embryos from human and pig cells and implanted them into live pigs. The embryos developed for 28 days, which is equivalent to the first trimester of pregnancy, after which the embryos were extracted. The study showed that the kidneys "contain up to 60% of human cells, are structurally normal and are in the second stage of development."
The authors of the experiment used gene editing technology to solve this problem. They removed two genes from pig embryos and created a genetic "niche" that allowed human kidneys to grow. But a full-fledged transplantation of such organs is still far away. The artificial kidneys retained blood vessels typical of pigs, not humans. To achieve full biological compatibility, more sophisticated genetic technologies will be required.
And yet, for the first time, scientists have managed to grow a whole human organ inside another species. Previous experiments ended in failure, because human and pig cells began to "compete" with each other. In the future, scientists plan to grow the kidneys to a later stage of development, The Independent reports.
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