Organathon Foundation:
C-604(DU) Parsvnath Green Ville, Sector - 48, Sohna Road Gurgaon - 122018
Ph: +91 9810602801 (Dr A.K.Sachdev)
Vol 1; No 1; May 2016
Editorial
Organathon Foundation is a “pro bono publico” initiative, which has stemmed from the long professional experience of two senior surgeons, who have observed a serious and ever widening Demand-Supply gap between the human organs available for donation and the organ failure patients waiting for transplantation. Unfortunately, the Northern India region has greatly lagged behind in the cadaver / deceased organ donations, even though there are several hospitals registered as organ transplant centres. The promoters of this Trust want to do everything possible, in a structured manner to bridge this gap.
The word Organathon has been extracted from the word marathon which relates to long distance race or a long, arduous task, assignment or activity (marathon activity). Organathon Foundation has taken up the arduous task of bridging the ever increasing gap between organs available and end stage organ failure patients waiting for an organ.
This newsletter has been launched by Organathon Foundation to provide important, relevant and new information for the general public and the care givers. This is the first edition of the Quarterly official publication of this organization. I would be happy to receive comments / suggestions from the readers.
Why this name ?
Organathon has been derived from ‘marathon’, which means long distance race, difficult task / activity, or a test of endurance. This foundation has been created with a long term, difficult task of encouraging all eligible organ donors to pledge their organs. This indeed is a ‘marathon task’ and will be a test of dedication, hard work & endurance for us.
"Organathon", letter by letter, stands for :
Organ
A : Altruistic
T : Transcendental
H : Humanitarian
O : Optional - Vs. Opt-Out option
N : Nirvana
Government decision matches with our thought process.
The following is one of the many suggestions that we are discussing with the authorities.
New Delhi: A patient who had earlier donated a kidney or is a close relative of a person whose organ was donated after death will get preference in allocation of deceased donor kidneys, according to new guidelines issued by the government.
Director general of health services Dr Jagdish Prasad told TOI the new policy aims to incentivise organ donations.
As per the new norms, allocation of deceased donor kidneys will be based on points. A prospective recipient will get one point for each month on dialysis, and three points for each previous graft failure.
Recipients up to 18 years of age will get one to three points. But the maximum weightage, five points, is reserved for previous donors who themselves require a kidney transplant and for relatives of people who donated the organ in death. These points would be over and above other criteria.
Extra points have also been added for failed connectivity between the arteries and vein, which basically makes it difficult to conduct dialysis on certain patients. Similarly, patients with high panel reactive antibody, which is reflective of declining immunity levels, will get priority points.
Dr Saudan Singh, director of National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization, said the government was working on linking the driving license application system with a pledge to donate organs.
"We have held meetings with the ministry of road, transport and highways in this regard. The details on how to make it functional across states is being worked out," he said.
Singh said more than 1.4 lakh people died in road accidents last year. Two-thirds of them were potential cadaver donors. "Linking driving licence applications with organ pledges will help us tap into this source of organs for those who need it," he said.
Some scary statistics
European Union statistics
A total of over 63,000 patients were officially placed on organs' waiting lists on 31 December 2013 in the European Union, i.e. for 508 million inhabitants (for comparison: respectively 63,800 patients and 61,500 patients were placed on waiting lists in the EU on 31 December 2012 and 2011). If patients from Iceland, Norway and Turkey are added: 86,000 patients were on the waiting lists (for a total population of 588 million inhabitants).
It is estimated that 4,100 patients died while officially placed on these waiting lists in the course of 2013 in the 28 Member States of the European Union (respectively 3,780 and 5,500 patients died while on waiting lists in 2012 and 2011). If patients from Iceland, Norway and Turkey are included, it can be estimated that 6,000 patients died while placed on the waiting lists in 2013.
Link : http://ec.europa.eu/health/blood_tissues_organs/docs/ev_20141126_factsfigures_en.pdf
USA
There are currently 121,678 people waiting for lifesaving organ transplants in the U.S. Of these, 100,791 await kidney transplants. (as of 1/11/16) 1- The median wait time for an individual’s first kidney transplant is 3.6 years and can vary depending on health, compatibility and availability of organs.2
- In 2014, 17,107 kidney transplants took place in the US. Of these, 11,570 came from deceased donors and 5,537 came from living donors.1
On average:
- Over 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month.1
- 13 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant.1
- Every 14 minutes someone is added to the kidney transplant list.1
- In 2014, 4,761 patients died while waiting for a kidney transplant. Another, 3,668 people became too sick to receive a kidney transplant.1
India
- Almost 1.5 lac people in India need a kidney; however, only 3000 of them receive one.
- Only 1 out of 30 people who need a kidney receive one.
- 90% of people in the waiting list die without getting an organ.
- India’s annual liver transplant requirement is 25,000, but we manage only about 800.
- 70% liver transplants are taken care of by a live donor, but 30% are dependent on cadaver donations.
Source: Times of India, DNA India
Crossword Puzzle
| 2 | 4 | 6 | |||||||
| 5 | 7 | ||||||||
| 1,9 | |||||||||
| 10 | |||||||||
| 3 | |||||||||
| 11 | 8 | ||||||||
| 12 | |||||||||
| 13 | |||||||||
| 14 |
Down
- 1 other than live organ donation
- 2 category of organizations which perform charitable activities
- 3 this organ regenerates very fast (in both individuals), when part of it is removed from one person & transplanted in another
- 4 This category of organ transplantation is carried out from one species to another
- 5 Transplantation of this organ will be very useful in Type I Diabetes Mellitus
- 6 State Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization
- 7 This is the abbreviated form of the Organ Transplantation Act enacted in 1994
- 8 This tissue can be transplanted by orthopaedic surgeons
Across
- 9 This tissue can be donated even if death occurs at home
- 10 National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization
- 11 This organ can be safely donate live
- 12 This type of transplant occurs from one human to another human
- 13 This tissue can be donated and banked for use in extensive burns patients
- 14 The free passage given by traffic police when organ is being transported is called corridor
For Lucky Draw Please Download fill and e-mail scanned copy to email contact@organathonfoundation.org
Saving Lives
To live a life to its fullest one must live it for others and the best way to do so is to gift life by pledging and donating ones organs. One need not be a doctor to save lives. A person only needs resolve and commitment for it. The number of patients desperately needing a transplant far outnumbers the available organs. Although living donation is an option for some organs, the main source of organs is deceased donation. As compared to live donation, in deceased (cadaver) organ donation, there is no medical risk to the donor and multiple organs & tissues can be donated to several waiting recipients.
Though transplant activity picked up in the 80s and early 90s, it was largely restricted to live donor kidney transplants in selected urban centres. In the 1990s the establishment of more centres and the availability of trained staff, led to an increase in kidney transplants. Transplantation of other organs such as the liver is a more recent activity. More than 90% of patients in South Asia die within months of diagnosis because they cannot afford treatment. It has been estimated that only 2.5% of patients with end stage renal disease in India actually end up getting a transplant . In 1994, the government of India promulgated the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA). The Transplantation of Human Organs Rules followed in 1995. Subsequently the Rules alone were amended in 2008. Later, THOA itself was amended in 2011.The Rules for the amended Act have been notified, in 2014. THOA of 1994 banned any form of "commercial trading" in organs. Unrelated donation was permitted on grounds of altruism but only with the sanction of an authorization committee. The committee took a decision on the basis of documentation and interviews of both prospective donor and recipient. Problems peculiar to the Indian situation have come up in the practice of deceased donor transplantation. The diagnosis of brain death and subsequent donation is possible only in intensive care units (ICUs) which have the facilities for keeping a brain dead patient's organs working with mechanical ventilation, cardiac support and intensive monitoring. Such ICUs are few and are available only in big hospitals in major cities. In some European countries, such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and France, "presumed consent" has been legalised and is practiced.
Organs and tissues that can be donated
Organs
Heart - An organ that pumps blood through the body. A transplant of the heart can be used to help those suffering from heart failure, as well as babies born with heart defects.
Liver - A large organ that aids in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. A transplant may be used to treat various conditions which cause liver failure, such as cirrhosis or liver cancer. Part of the liver from a live donor is feasible, as liver tends to re-grow fast to perform full function.
Kidneys - A pair of organs filter the blood of metabolic waste, which is excreted as urine. The kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organ, as one kidney can safely be donated if the other kidney is fully healthy.
Lungs - A pair of two organs that remove carbon dioxide from the blood and provide it with oxygen.
Pancreas - Long, irregularly shaped gland which lies behind the stomach and aids in the digestion of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Intestines - The portion of the digestive tract extending from the stomach to the anus, consisting of small & large intestines.
Tissues
Cornea - The outer curved transparent film covering the iris and pupils on the outside of the eye.
Skin - A tissue which protects the body from infection and injury.
Heart Valves - Tissues that prevent the back flow of blood into the heart.
Tendons - Tissues which attach muscles to bones.
Bones – Tissues which constitute the skeletal system
Transplant Milestones
| 1869 | First Skin Transplant Performed |
| 1906 | First transplant of cornea performed |
| 1954 | First successful kidney transplant performed. A living donor gave a kidney to his identical twin |
| 1959 | First successful kidney transplant performed between fraternal twins |
| 1960 | First successful kidney transplant performed between siblings who were not twins |
| 1962/63 | First kidney, lung, and liver transplants recovered from deceased donors |
| 1963 | First organ recovery from a brain dead donor |
| 1966 | First successful pancreas transplant performed |
| 1967 | First successful liver transplant performed |
| 1967 | First simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplant performed |
| 1967 | First U.S. heart transplant performed |
| 1967 | First successful heart transplant performed in South Africa |
| 1968 | First successful bone marrow transplant performed |
| 1968 | First definition of brain death based on neurological criteria developed by a Harvard Ad Hoc Committee |
| 1968 | The first organ procurement organization (OPO) was established, New England Organ Bank based in Boston |
| 1968 | Uniform Anatomical Gift Act drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; established the Uniform Donor Card as a legal document of gift in all 50 states, identified the types and priority of individuals who could donate a deceased person's organs, and enabled anyone over 18 to legally donate his or her organs upon death |
| 1976 | Discovery cyclosporine’s ability to suppress the immune system, helping to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs. |
| 1980 | Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) defines death as either irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or irreversible cessation of all functions of the brain, including the brain stem. |
| 1981 | First combined heart/lung transplant performed |
| 1981 | Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), a draft state law developed by the National Conference on Uniform State Laws, in cooperation with the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Bar Association (ABA), and the President's Commission on Medical Ethics |
| 1983 | National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week first declared by Congress, Senate Joint Resolution 78 |
| 1983 | The Food and Drug Administration approves cyclosporine which can improve transplant outcomes as its immunosuppressive qualities lessens the potential for organ rejection |
| 1983 | Surgeon General C. Everett Koop convenes the first workshop on solid organ procurement for transplant. |
| 1983 | First successful single lung transplant with significant recipient survival (more than 6 years). |
| 1983/84 | First successful lung and heart/liver combined transplant performed |
| 1984 | The National Organ Transplant Act passed by Congress prohibits the selling of human organs, establishes the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to ensure fair and equitable allocation of donated organs, and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients to conduct an ongoing evaluation of the scientific and clinical status of organ transplantation. It also provided for grants for the establishment, initial operation, and expansion of organ procurement organizations |
| 1985 | Public Law 99-272, The Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1985, April 8, 1986, required that States have written standards with regard to coverage of organ transplants in order to qualify for federal payments under Title XIX of the Social Security Act |
| 1986 | The first contract for establishment and operation of the OPTN is awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The OPTN provides services for equitable access and allocation of organs and sets the membership criteria and standards for transplant centers in the U.S. |
| 1986 | Required Request legislation. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 required hospitals to have in place policies for offering all families of deceased patients the opportunity to donate their loved one’s organs. |
| 1987 | Medicare pays for heart transplants performed at hospitals that meet criteria set by the Health Care Financing Administration (now Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). |
| 1987 | First successful intestine transplant performed |
| 1988 | First split-liver transplant surgery performed. This procedure enables two recipients to each receive a portion of one donated liver. |
| 1989 | First successful small intestine transplant performed |
| 1990 | Medicare pays for liver transplants (that meet specific medical criteria) performed at approved hospitals |
| 1990 | Nobel Prize awarded to Dr. Joseph E. Murray and Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, pioneers in kidney and bone marrow transplants respectively. Dr. Murray performed the first successful kidney transplant (1954) and Dr. Thomas performed the first bone marrow transplant (1968). |
| 1990 | First successful living donor lung transplant was performed. |
| 1991 | Surgeon General Antonia Novella convenes a national workshop on increasing organ donation |
| 1995 | First living donor kidney was removed through laparoscopic surgical methods that result in a small incision and easier recovery for the donor. |
| 1996 | Congress authorizes mailing organ and tissue donation information with income tax refunds (sent to approximately 70 million households). |
| 1998 | The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued its Hospital Conditions of Participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs requiring participating hospitals to refer all deaths and imminent deaths to the local organ procurement organization. |
| 1998 | First successful hand transplant performed in France |
| 1998 | Plasmapheresis was introduced to enable kidney transplant in patients whose ABO blood group or antibodies are incompatible with the donor. |
| 1999 | First hand transplant performed in the U.S. |
| 1999 | Organ Donor Leave Act was passed by Congress to allow federal employees to receive paid leave and serve as living organ or marrow donors. |
| 1999 | Institute of Medicine Report released its report Organ Procurement and Transplantation, with five recommendations. Among these were recommendations to: discontinue the use of waiting time in allocation of less severely ill liver patients; reaffirm the federal government's OPTN oversight role; establish independent review of the OPTN; and improve OPTN collection and availability to independent investigators for research or analysis |
| 2000 | Children’s Health Act (PL 106-310): Amended the National Organ Transplant Act to require the OPTN to consider special issues concerning pediatric patients that should be considered in organ allocation |
| 2001 | Number of living donors exceeds number of deceased donors for the first time in the U.S. |
| 2001 | HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson launched his national Gift of Life Donation Initiative to increase organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donation. |
| 2002 | Up-to-the-minute data on the number of people waiting for organ transplants in the United States are now available online through the OPTN. |
| 2002 | Department of Health and Human Services premieres its new documentary, No Greater Loveat the Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, DC. This hour long film, narrated by Angela Lansbury and produced by Banyan Communications, depicts the power of transplantation and the critical need for more donors. |
| 2003 | HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, designates April as National Donate Life Month |
| 2003 | The Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative, was launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase donation in the nation's largest hospitals by implementing an intensive and highly focused program to promote widespread use of best practices. In 2005, transplant centers joined the initiative with the goal of increasing the number of organs per donor. A revised version of the program continues today as the Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice |
| 2003 | No Greater Love won a national EMMY™ award for community service documentaries (See 2002). |
| 2004 | Organ Donation and Recovery Improvement Act (PL 108-216): expanded authorities of the National Organ Transplant Act to, among other things, provide reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses for living organ donors, and grants to states and public entities. |
| 2005 | First successful partial face transplant performed in France |
| 2006 | Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a new report, Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action. The IOM examined the ethical and societal implications of numerous strategies to increase deceased donation and considered several ethical issues regarding living donation, resulting in the presentation of seventeen recommendations for action. |
| 2006 | Donate Life America launched its Donor Designation Collaborative to increase the total number of registered donors in the U.S. to 100 million. |
| 2007 | Charlie W. Norwood Living Organ Donation Act (PL 110-144): established that paired donation is not considered valuable consideration for purposes of Section 301 of the National Organ Transplant Act |
| 2008 | Stephanie Tubbs Jones Gift of Life Medal Act (PL 110-113): establishes authority for the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a National Medal honoring organ donors. |
| 2009 | END THE WAIT! Campaign launched by the National Kidney Foundation to increase organ donation and eliminate the kidney waiting list. |
| 2014 | Vascularized composite allografts (VCAs) is added to the definition of organs covered by federal regulation (the OPTN Final Rule) and legislation (the National Organ Transplant Act). The designation went into effect on July 3, 2014 |
For full article, click on the following link http://www.organdonor.gov/legislation/timeline.html
News Tit-bits
Modi lays emphasis on organ donation in 'Mann Ki Baat', New Delhi October 25, 2015
Narendra Modi
Asserting that organ donation is an important issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday praised Tamil Nadu for their leading endeavours in this regard while praising the other states for their initiatives towards the cause.
"Some girls from Kerala asked me to talk about organ donation. Organ donation is an important issue. The need for kidneys, heart and livers is high but less number of transplants happen," he said while addressing the nation in the 13th edition of his 'Mann Ki Baat' programme.
Organ donation queries up post PM Narendra Modi's 'Mann ki Baat': J P Nadda
PTI Dec 15, 2015, 05.54PM IST
(The number of queries made…)
NEW DELHI: The number of queries made to the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), including through phone and website, have increased after Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the issue in his radio message 'Mann Ki Baat', Parliament was informed today. The importance of organ donation has been highlighted by the Prime Minister in his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio programme in October and November 2015, Health Minister J P Nadda said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
A short story
One of the richest and most powerful men in Brazil, Thane Chiquinho Scarpa, made waves when he announced plans to bury his million dollar Bentley, so he could drive around his after-life in style. He received lots of media attention, mostly negative and was severely criticized for the extravagant gesture and wasting of a precious commodity. Why wouldn’t he donate the car to charity ? How out of touch with reality is this guy ? He still went ahead with the ceremony.
But, there’s a twist (Of course there is. Why else would I be covering this story ?)
Moments before lowering the car in the ground prepared for the burial of his Bentley, he declared that he wouldn’t bury his car and then revealed his genuine motive for the drama. Just to create awareness for organ donation.
“People condemn me because I wanted to bury a million dollar Bentley, in fact most people bury something a lot more valuable than my car.” Scarpa said during a speech at the ceremony, “They bury hearts, livers, lungs, eyes, kidneys. This is absurd. So many people waiting for a transplant and you bury your healthy organs that could save so many lives”.
Think about it
The Emotional Moment a Mother Hears Late Son's Heartbeat in Organ Recipient
Mon, 4 Apr 2016
A North Dakota woman was able to hear her late son's heart beat again after meeting with the man who received her son's heart in an organ donation. Lisa Swanson met Terry Hooper, 64, more than three years after Hooper received the heart from Swanson's late son Levi Schulz. Swanson met with Hooper
For full story, visit this lin
Written by Honor Whiteman
Published: Tuesday 19 April 2016
The results of a phase 3 clinical trial are being hailed as a "breakthrough" in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, after finding that transplantation of islet cells - clusters of cells in the pancreas that contain insulin-producing cells - prevented potentially life-threatening reductions in blood sugar among patients with the disease. Click on the following link for full article :
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/309275.php
Written by Honor Whiteman
Published: Thursday 10 March 2016
The first uterus transplant to take place in the US - carried out by doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio - has failed as a result of a sudden complication, hospital officials reported on Wednesday.
Click on the following link for full article : http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/307728.php
MYSURU: This auto driver, besides driving his three-wheeler, is also driving home a message on body and organ donation.
Mahadeva, 47, started creating awareness after seeing many accidents while on the road. His auto is full of slogans about the cause he is promoting. The ad space through which he is creating awareness can fetch him about Rs 500 a month. But still, Mahadeva, despite earning Rs 200 daily, has chosen to use that space for public cause. Besides his message on wheels, he also distributes organ donation applications to people.
Click on the following link for full article : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysuru/Autorickshaw-driver-creates-awareness-on-organ-donation/articleshow/51597164.cms
Chief minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday launched an air ambulance for promoting organ donation in Kerala. The memorandum of understanding for the air ambulance project was signed between the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS) and the stateowned Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy.
Click on the following link for full article : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/Now-an-air-ambulance-to-promote-organ-donation/articleshow/51235376.cms
1 Abraham G, John G T, Shroff S, Fernando EM, Reddy Y. Evolution of renal transplantation in India over the last four decades. Clinical Kidney Journal. 2010;3:203-7.
Download PPT |
Human-Pig Hybrid Created in the Lab—Here Are the Facts
Scientists hope the chimera embryos represent key steps toward life-saving lab-grown organs.
In a remarkable—if likely controversial—feat, scientists announced today that they have created the first successful human-animal hybrids. The project proves that human cells can be introduced into a non-human organism, survive, and even grow inside a host animal, in this case, pigs.
This biomedical advance has long been a dream and a quandary for scientists hoping to address a critical shortage of donor organs.
Every ten minutes, a person is added to the national waiting list for organ transplants. And every day, 22 people on that list die without the organ they need. What if, rather than relying on a generous donor, you could grow a custom organ inside an animal instead?
That’s now one step closer to reality, an international team of researchers led by the Salk Institute reports in the journal Cell. The team created what’s known scientifically as a chimera: an organism that contains cells from two different species. (Read more about the DNA revolution in National Geographic magazine.)
In the past, human-animal chimeras have been beyond reach. Such experiments are currently ineligible for public funding in the United States (so far, the Salk team has relied on private donors for the chimera project). Public opinion, too, has hampered the creation of organisms that are part human, part animal.
But for lead study author Jun Wu of the Salk Institute, we need only look to mythical chimeras—like the human-bird hybrids we know as angels—for a different perspective.
“In ancient civilizations, chimeras were associated with God,” he says, and our ancestors thought “the chimeric form can guard humans.” In a sense, that’s what the team hopes human-animal hybrids will one day do.
BUILDING A CHIMERA
There are two ways to make a chimera. The first is to introduce the organs of one animal into another—a risky proposition, because the host’s immune system may cause the organ to be rejected.
The other method is to begin at the embryonic level, introducing one animal’s cells into the embryo of another and letting them grow together into a hybrid.
It sounds weird, but it’s an ingenious way to eventually solve a number of vexing biological problems with lab-grown organs.
When scientists discovered stem cells, the master cells that can produce any kind of body tissue, they seemed to contain infinite scientific promise. But convincing those cells to grow into the right kinds of tissues and organs is difficult.
Cells must survive in Petri dishes. Scientists have to use scaffolds to make sure the organs grow into the right shapes. And often, patients must undergo painful and invasive procedures to harvest the tissues needed to kick off the process.
At first, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in the Salk Institute’s Gene Expression Laboratory, thought the concept of using a host embryo to grow organs seemed straightforward enough. However, it took Belmonte and more than 40 collaborators four years to figure out how to make a human-animal chimera.
To do so, the team piggybacked off prior chimera research conducted on mice and rats.
Other scientists had already figured out how to grow the pancreatic tissue of a rat inside a mouse. On Wednesday, that team announced that mouse pancreases grown inside rats successfully treated diabetes when parts of the healthy organs were transplanted into diseased mice.
The Salk-led group took the concept one step further, using the genome editing tool called CRISPR to hack into mouse blastocysts—the precursors of embryos. There, they deleted genes that mice need to grow certain organs. When they introduced rat stem cells capable of producing those organs, those cells flourished.
The mice that resulted managed to live into adulthood. Some even grew gall bladders, which haven’t been part of the species for 18 million years.
REJECTION RISK
The team then took stem cells from rats and injected them into pig blastocysts. This version failed—not surprisingly, since rats and pigs have dramatically different gestation times and evolutionary ancestors.
But pigs have a notable similarity to humans. Though they take less time to gestate, their organs look a lot like ours.
Not that these similarities made the task any easier. The team discovered that, in order to introduce human cells into the pigs without killing them, they had to get the timing just right.
“We tried three different types of human cells, essentially representing three different times” in the developmental process, explains Jun Wu, a Salk Institute scientist and the paper’s first author. Through trial and error, they learned that naïve pluripotent cells—stem cells with unlimited potential—didn’t survive as well as ones that had developed a bit more.
When those just-right human cells were injected into the pig embryos, the embryos survived. Then they were put into adult pigs, which carried the embryos for between three and four weeks before they were removed and analyzed.
In all, the team created 186 later-stage chimeric embryos that survived, says Wu, and “we estimate [each had] about one in 100,000 human cells.”
That’s a low percentage—and it could present a problem for the method in the long run, says Ke Cheng, a stem cell expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
The human tissue appears to slow the growth of the embryo, notes Cheng, and organs grown from such embryos as they develop now would likely be rejected by humans, since they would contain so much pig tissue.
The next big step, says Cheng, is to figure out whether it's possible to increase the number of human cells the embryos can tolerate. The current method is a start, but it still isn't clear if that hurdle can be overcome.
Belmonte agrees, noting that it could take years to use the process to create functioning human organs. The technique could be put to use much sooner as a way to study human embryo development and understand disease. And those real-time insights could be just as valuable as the ability to grow an organ.
Even at this early stage, Cheng calls the work a breakthrough: “There are other steps to take,” he concedes. “But it’s intriguing. Very intriguing.”
Click on the following link for full article : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/human-pig-hybrid-embryo-chimera-organs-health-science/
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