Overseas media: Chinese scientists successfully cultivate heart tissue containing human cells in pig embryos for the first time
The research was led by a team from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health. By editing genes to remove key genes essential for pig heart development and injecting optimized human stem cells, the embryo developed early-stage human heart tissue with beating function, although the embryo only survived for 21 days.
Although the cell ratio has not been announced, the study shows that human cells do exist, but coexistence with pig cells may still trigger immune rejection. This achievement extends the research direction of successfully generating human kidney tissue in pig embryos in 2023 (with human cell proportion reaching 50% to 70%). The goal is to cultivate fully human-cell-composed transplantable organs in the future to alleviate the global shortage of organs. Currently, more than 7,500 people in the UK are waiting for heart transplants.
The study also raises ethical concerns. Although the experiment avoided brain and reproductive cell development, continuous regulation is still needed.
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1835266856501251/
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