Pigs may grow human organs soon

The technique, developed by a team at the University of Tokyo in Japan, involves injecting stem cells of an animal into the embryos of another animal that had been genetically altered so they could not produce their own organs.

The researchers said the technique could allow pigs to grow human organs from patient’s stem cells for use as transplants.

By using a patient’s own stem cells it could help to reduce the risk of the transplanted organ being rejected while also providing a plentiful supply of donor organs, they said.

Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi said: “Our goal is to generate human organs from induced pluripotent stem cells. The technique, called blastocyst complementation, provides us with a novel approach for organ supply. We have successfully tried it between mice and rats. We are now rather confident in generating functional human organs.”