Kidneys of the Future:Pigs Offer Hope for Transplants

Scientists recently achieved a groundbreaking milestone by growing kidneys composed primarily of human cells within pig embryos, a crucial step toward generating human organs for transplantation. In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, researchers used CRISPR/Cas9 to remove key genes necessary for kidney development in pig embryos and introduced human induced pluripotent stem cells into the embryos. In the harvested organs from five surrogate sows, 50-60% of the cells were of human origin, marking a record for pig-grown organs. However, the challenge of reproducing over 70 human kidney cell types remains, posing potential rejection issues in future transplants.