Pig Organ Transplants to Apes Likely This Year

By Kim Tae-gyu

Staff Reporter

May 22, 2005

Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk is likely to surprise the world once again, this time by transplanting organs of miniature pigs to monkeys by the end of the year.

The study is expected to open the door for transplanting organs or cells of other species into the human body, engendering new hope for millions of people needing heart, liver and kidney transplants.

A senior researcher of Hwang's team, who wanted to be identified only as Kim, yesterday said that the team looks to transplant hearts and the insulin-producing islets from cloned miniature pigs.

``We have created dozens of pigs embedded with human immunity genes since late last year. We look to start transplanting their organs or cells into monkeys as early as late this year,'' Kim said.

The mammal with organs most similar to those of a human is, surprisingly, the pig. Its organs are almost the same size as those of humans and so are its body's metabolic functions.

To prevent rejection of the pig organs, Hwang's team cloned somatic cells of gnotobiotic (sterilized) pigs into many piglets incorporated with human immunity genes.

The gnotobiotic pigs have never been exposed to the air and they have been raised in germ-free facilities to prevent infection if their organs are transplanted to humans.

Kim said Hwang's team looks to first transplant islets of Langerhans, or insulin-producing beta cells, into monkeys, and other organs like hearts will be the next target.

`` We decided to begin with islets because transplanting cells has more chances of being usefully applied in the short term for many diabetes patients,'' Kim said.

Islets are clusters of cells, accounting for about two percent of the mass of the pancreas' tissue. They are in charge of making blood sugar.

Kim said still the immune response is the most challenging issue to be resolved in the inter-species transplantation.

``Even though we have come up with various ways to address negative immune responses, there's still a long way to go before clinically using the organs of other species,'' Kim projected.

He said Hwang's team originally planned to embark on the islets experiments in June but an accident at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) delayed the schedule.

``We were supposed to procure monkeys through the KRIBB this month. But a mishap postponed it. We plan to obtain monkeys later this year,'' Kim said.

In April, a total of 99 monkeys died at the KRIBB establishments because its temperature sensors failed during an electricity blackout.

Hwang's team stormed into the global limelight late last week after they announced the development of the first lines of customized stem cells, cloned from somatic cells of patients with fatal diseases or disabilities.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr

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This article posted July 2, 2005.