Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. II Issue NO.: 5 (February 2000)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568

Xenotransplantation

Indian Transplant Newsletter.
Vol. II Issue NO.: 5 (February 2000)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568
Print PDF


 No infection in humans from pig virus 

A report in the august 20, 1999 of science()1999: 285:1236-1241)says that in retrospective study conducted to access the safety of xeno-transplantation ,  researchers found no evidence of the porcine endogenous retrovirus in 160 patients who were treated with living pig tissue up to 12 years earlier. This was the largest retrospective study that has been carried out to date. 

 

Investigators from Imutran, the Cambridge-based branch of Novartis Pharma that studies xeno-transplantation and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that the study group included 36 patients who were pharmacologically immune suppressed and, therefore, presumed to have an increased risk of infection.

 

Twenty- three patients had clear evidence of circulating pig cells but no signs of infection, and some of these patients had been treated more than eight years previously. This finding demonstrates that pigs tissues can survive in the human body for long periods with no ill effects. The study included patients who had been treated with pig skin grafts for several burns. Pig pancreatic islet cells for diabetes, or had their blood perfused outside their body through pig spleens, kidneys, or livers. These results supported the use of closely monitored clinical trials as an approach to assessing the safety and efficacy of using porcine cell, tissues, or organs therapeutically in humans according to author Khazal Paradis and colleagues.

 

Of course the debate about xeno-transplantation will continue with this new study giving more food for thought. In reports in Nature Medicine (1997:3; 282-286) and Nature (1997; 389; 681), researchers in London warned of the possibility of pig viruses spreading to humans. Fuelled, in part, by these reports, in early 1998 some scientists called for a moratorium on xeno-transplantation research.


To cite : Shroff S, Navin S. Xenotransplantation. Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. II Issue NO.: 5 (February 2000).
Available at:
https://www.itnnews.co.in/indian-transplant-newsletter/issue5/Xeno-transplantation-130.htm

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