East China's Nanjing City has introduced genetically modified pigs, which are expected to produce organs more suitable as transplants for humans, the Yangtse Evening News reports.
A research group from the Nanjing Medical University has announced that they are developing the cloning of pigs with modified genes, and that piglets will be born this summer.
Zhao Zijian, a scientist from the six-people working group, said they are using cutting-edge biological technology to create "knock-out" pigs whose organs are less likely to be rejected by a human donor-recipient.
The "knock-out" technique is to inactivate genes that cause the human immune system to reject an implanted pig organ, and remove them out of individual cells. The cells will then be used to create clones from which organs can be harvested, according to Zhao.
The technology was introduced by Doctor Dai Yifan, a professor with the Nanjing Medical University, and an expert in double-knockout cloned pigs.
Dai brought home the cells of "knock-out" pigs from the United States earlier this year. The cells are expected to produce thousands of test-tube piggies in half a year.
For fears of any virus transmissions, the piglets will be raised in an aseptic environment, and have timely inspections and quarantines, said the expert, adding that medical tests could be carried out with the second generation of cloned pigs.
Pig organs are of a similar size to human organs, and some scientists hope they might be used to help meet the shortfall. But previous attempts to transplant unaltered pig tissue into humans have failed, due to the immune rejection of the tissue.
Dai said tests have proven that the kidneys transplanted from genetically-modified pigs worked well in monkeys' bodies, but it takes years before the organs of "knock-out" pigs could be used in human clinical trials.
Statistics show that every year there are more than 1.5 million people in China waiting to receive donated organs. The number of human donors, however, falls far short to meet the demand.
