Pork skin against burns

Scientists are ready for the first ever pig skin transplant to a human

Vladimir Kuznetsov, Hi-News, by press release XenoTherapeutics.

Modern transplantology, unfortunately, is still not able to provide the required organs to all those in need, so a variety of studies are being conducted in this area in order to overcome this limitation. Surely many of you have heard that pig organs may be suitable for human transplantation for a number of reasons, but in practice this is poorly implemented. But soon everything may change, because a group of scientists from the United States announced their readiness for the first pig skin transplantation to humans.

Experts from the Boston-based nonprofit biotech company XenoTherapeutics are behind the development. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an application for the use in clinical trials of skin grafts taken from genetically modified pigs.

But why did it happen only now? After all, it has long been known that the organs of these animals are suitable for humans. The fact is that "ordinary" pigs with a fairly high histocompatibility index have a large number of agents in the cells of their organs (including viruses embedded in RNA and DNA) that cause rejection. Therefore, scientists were focused on creating animals without this "disadvantage". As stated by XenoTherapeutics CEO Paul Holzer,

"At XenoTherapeutics, we use genetically modified donor animals whose tissues are not rejected by the immune system. In comparison with human skin, I would use such an example: It's like Pepsi and Coca-Cola. There seems to be a difference, but it is insignificant for our body."

XenoTherapeutics is working closely with doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital, who will help conduct clinical trials as early as next month. At the first stage, the skin will be transplanted to six patients with severe burns. They will be closely monitored for one month. With a positive outcome, the transplants will have to undergo two more stages of testing on more numerous groups of patients. And only after that a decision will be made whether to approve the introduction of such a method into clinical practice or not.

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