Breakthrough in the xenotransplantation: use pig organs for people!

Breakthrough in the xenotransplantation: use pig organs for people!

University of Maryland, USA - Medical research is constantly in motion, and an area that has become significantly more important in recent years is the Xeno transplantation. In the future, this technology could make a decisive contribution to solving organ deficiency problems. According to reports from Nature, the xenotransplantation, i.e. the transmission of organs between different species, has made remarkable progress, especially through genetic modifications of animals such as pigs to make them usable as donor organs for humans.

A central aspect of research are genetic modifications. Technologies such as Crispr-Cas9 make it possible to change the genome of pigs so that they are more tolerable for human recipients. Researchers have shown that the introduction of human complement -regulatory proteins such as CD55, CD46 and CD59 can reduce the rejection of xenotrobplated organs. Despite these successes, challenges, in particular the antibody-mediated rejection, i.e. the immune response of the human body to animal organs, which continues to be the subject of intensive studies Nature ....

genetic engineering and rejection mechanisms

Another exciting progress is the development of so-called triple-knockout pigs, in which several genes who are responsible for the immune response are eliminated. These developments aim to improve the survival rates of the organs and reduce the recipient's immune response. In a preclinical study, it was found that kidneys of genetically modified pigs had a long freedom of rejection. Despite this progress, research shows that all transplants are ultimately lost due to rejection or thrombotic microangiopathy. This makes it clear that there is still a lot to do to ensure the long -term survival of the organs PMC reports that ....

One of the most important studies on the Xeno transplantation was made by Montgomery et al. Published that document the results of two cases of a pig-kidney transplantation in humans. Such studies do pioneering work for future clinical applications and open up new ways in the organ transplant, which could possibly reduce the waiting times [DRZE points out that ...] (https://www.drze.de/de/forschung-plichtkunkt/orghantranslantation/module/xeno transplantation).

regulatory framework

on the way to the clinical application of the xenotransplantation are also of great importance. In Germany, the Federal Medical Association published a statement on the Xeno transplantation in 1999, which illuminates the medical, legal and ethical challenges. These discussions are particularly important because new technologies not only raise technological but also social and ethical questions.

The introduction of xenotransplantations into regular patient care is undoubtedly influenced by guidelines and regulations, such as those of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which continuously work on improving the standards for medical therapies. The WHO has also published guidelines that round off the ethical perspectives when using AI in health care. It is crucial that scientists and regulatory authorities work together to ensure that the technology is used both effectively and safely.

The view that genetically modified pigs could play a role as an organ source in the future is an exciting but also complex area. It remains to be seen how the legal framework will develop, while the scientists do their best to master these challenges and make the dream of the Xeno transplantation real.