Scientists Create First Pig Stem Cells
Scientists in China have successfully transformed ordinary cells from pigs into pluripotent stem cells.
The announcement marks the first time scientists have used somatic cells ““ cells that are not sperm or egg cells ““ from ungulates to make flexible pluripotent stem cells.
"To date, many efforts have been made to establish ungulate pluripotent embryonic stem cells from early embryos without success,” said Dr Lei Xiao, who heads the stem cell lab at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology in Shanghai.
“This is the first report in the world of the creation of domesticated ungulate pluripotent stem cells. Therefore, it is entirely new, very important and has a number of applications for both human and animal health."
Pluripotent stem cells are much like embryonic stem cells in that they have the ability of developing into any type of cell in the body. Scientists believe their groundbreaking research could lead to new ways to treat human genetic diseases, as well as genetically engineering animals for organ transplants for humans, and even in developing pigs that are resistant to diseases such as swine flu.
"Pig pluripotent stem cells would be useful in a number of ways, such as precisely engineering transgenic animals for organ transplantation therapies,” said Dr Xiao. “The pig species is significantly similar to humans in its form and function, and the organ dimensions are largely similar to human organs. We could use embryonic stem cells or induced stem cells to modify the immune-related genes in the pig to make the pig organ compatible to the human immune system. Then we could use these pigs as organ donors to provide organs for patients that won’t trigger an adverse reaction from the patient’s own immune system.”
He also said the pig pluripotent stem cells could be used to create models for genetic diseases such as diabetes.
He added that in an effort to fight swine flu, scientists would make a “precise, gene-modified pig to improve the animal’s resistance to the disease.”
“We would do this by first, finding a gene that has anti-swine flu activity, or inhibits the proliferation of the swine flu virus; second, we can introduce this gene to the pig via pluripotent stem cells ““ a process known as gene ‘knock-in’. Alternatively, because the swine flu virus needs to bind with a receptor on the cell membrane of the pig to enter the cells and proliferate, we could knock out this receptor in the pig via gene targeting in the pig induced pluripotent stem cell. If the receptor is missing, the virus will not infect the pig."
Dr Xiao said the new finding could also benefit animal farming by making pigs healthier and by modifying the growth-related genes to improve the way they grow.
The new research is published in the online Journal of Molecular Cell Biology.
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