Again induced pluripotent stem cells – this time pork

Scientists have created artificial pig stem cellsRIA News
A group of Chinese scientists for the first time in laboratory conditions managed to create induced pluripotent stem cells of pigs, which will help to overcome the A/H1N1 virus, breed new types of pigs for agriculture and even make their internal organs suitable for transplantation to humans, according to the authors of the study published in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology.

In natural conditions, stem cells are formed only at the stage of embryonic development of the organism. Their peculiarity is the ability to transform into any of the types of specific cells that form certain tissues of the body.

Attempts to return already specialized cells to the original undifferentiated state, in other words, to create pluripotent stem cells of pigs, indistinguishable in their properties from embryonic stem cells of these animals, scientists have been unsuccessfully undertaken for a long time.

For the first time, Dr. Lei Xiao and the team of the laboratory of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, which he directs, managed to obtain "artificial" pig stem cells. As in the case of induced pluripotent human stem cells, pig tissue cells pass into an undifferentiated state under the influence of certain proteins.

Xiao's team managed to introduce the genes of these proteins into the cells of the bone marrow and ear tissues of pigs with the help of harmless viruses and prove that the resulting cells are indeed reprogrammed into a pluripotent state. According to their properties, they turned out to be indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells and showed the ability to transform into specific tissues of one type or another present in the body of animals.

The achievement of scientists will make it possible to use pigs as model animals to study human genetic diseases, as well as to create genetically modified pigs resistant to diseases. In addition, genetically modified pigs can become sources of organs for human transplantation.

"Different types of pigs are biologically very close to humans – even the size of our internal organs practically coincide, not to mention their functioning. Genetic modification can help avoid tissue rejection when transplanting internal organs of pigs to patients who otherwise have to hope for years for the appearance of a suitable donor," said Xiao, quoted by Oxford University Press, which publishes the journal.

In addition, according to the authors of the study, the use of pig stem cells will allow in the future to create new genetically modified animal species, the breeding of which in agriculture is more profitable. Xiao hopes that the first achievements of scientists in this field will appear in a few years.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru/03.06.2009