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One step closer to growing made-to-order human kidneys
The results of the study, led by researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan, will be published in an upcoming issue of Nature Communications.
For patients with end-stage renal disease, a kidney transplant is the only hope for regaining quality of life. Yet many of these patients will never undergo transplant surgery thanks to a chronic shortage of donor kidneys. With 95,000 patients on the waiting list for a donor kidney in the United States alone, demand far outstrips supply.
But researchers have been working on ways to grow healthy organs outside the human body. One such method, called blastocyst complementation, has already produced promising results. Researchers take blastocysts, the clusters of cells formed several days after egg fertilization, from mutant animals missing specific organs and inject them with stem cells from a normal donor, not necessarily of the same species. The stem cells then differentiate to form the entire missing organ in the resulting animal. The new organ retains the characteristics of the original stem cell donor, and can thus potentially be used in transplantation therapy.
(Score: 5, Funny) by krishnoid on Friday February 08 2019, @10:36PM
I bet they could grow them round and with different flavors. Maybe they could grow them straight into the pie crust!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @10:43PM (5 children)
Pigs can be universal donors to humans with just a few changes.
1. Destroy DNA that makes surface proteins that upset the human immune system. As a bonus, this will help with tick-induced meat allergies.
2. Destroy DNA that creates virus particles. Pigs have some of this in their germ line, so every pig is producing virus particles that upset the human immune system.
That's it. The pigs will be pretty normal with those changes, completely suitable for making bacon. Transplants will be trivial, without any need for anti-rejection drugs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @10:55PM (4 children)
Wrong! Even with your changes the pigs will not be universal donors to humans... unless you don't consider Muslims human.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @11:21PM (3 children)
Whether we consider them human or not really doesn't matter, because if changing pigs this way means most of the European/North American population can benefit, then we don't really care either way. We'll use the shit out of this. They can take it or leave it.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday February 09 2019, @05:03AM (2 children)
If I am faced with the prospect of can't get any more oil filters for my big old Ford van, and someone found a way to make it work with a Freightliner filter, I would consider it to be really good news.
A human body is a terrible thing to lose for the lack of a blood filter.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Saturday February 09 2019, @11:18AM (1 child)
Same here. When I hit ESRD, you can damn well bet that I'll gladly take any reasonably compatible kidney, even if it's only a short-term measure to escape the symptoms & give me time before a fully compatible one is available.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 10 2019, @01:18AM
Human donors need to be carefully matched, and even then you normally must take anti-rejection drugs.
Pigs are worse... until genetically modified. Simply ripping out a bit of DNA makes them 100% perfect matches for anything other than liver and bone marrow.
(liver and bone marrow would bring the pig's immune system, and YOU haven't been modified, so it would attack you)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @10:47PM (2 children)
the ethanol out of our fuel?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 08 2019, @11:58PM (1 child)
Get...out...of...my...sight, you fucking bastard animals!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @03:52AM
Quid pro quo?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @10:57PM (3 children)
when you have millions of Chinese prisoners willing to donate? Not to mention the teenagers who'll do so for the lost cost of one iPhone.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @11:15PM (2 children)
Getting a teenager's kidney puts you at risk of getting infected with millennialitis. You'll wake up after the operation not knowing what gender you are.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @12:50AM (1 child)
Preposterous! The correct answer is whatever gender you feel like at that moment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @01:12AM
This sounds silly on paper but, once you try it, sex gets much more interesting.