| News From Transplant Week of January 6, 2002 / Vol. 3 No. 1 |
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Xenotransplantation Gets Boost With Birth of Genetically Modified Piglets |
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PPL Therapeutics of Scotland, the firm behind the cloning of Dolly the sheep, said a gene that causes the human immune system to reject pig organs within minutes of transplantation had been "knocked out" of the genetic make-up of the five piglets born Christmas Day at the company's Virginia subsidiary. The announcement came a day before release of an article in the journal Science revealing that Immerge BioTherapeutics of Boston, together with the University of Missouri, had produced four piglets with the same gene "knocked out" gene in September and October. The gene that has been 'knocked-out', the alpha 1,3 galactosyl transferase (GT) gene, is responsible for making an enzyme that adds a sugar to the surface of pig cells which is recognized by the human immune system as foreign, and which therefore triggers an immune response. "With one of the major technical hurdles and scientific risks overcome, the promise of xenotransplantation is now a reality, with the potential to revolutionise the transplant industry," said Alan Colman, PPL's research director. However, researchers still must breed animals that lack both copies of the gene. "This
is a very important step in what has been a long pathway, but
we are not there yet," cautioned Dr. David H. Sachs, director
of the Transplantation Biology Research Center at Massachusetts
General Hospital. A spokesperson
for PPL said the company expected the first application of the
technology would be the testing of insulin-producing islet cells
for the treatment of diabetes. Clinical trials for this could
start in four years, he said. Other sources: Science, PPL, AFX |
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