Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Grow Pig's Heart On Sheep's Neck
t0rnt0pieces writes "Yahoo! News reports that Nebraska scientists say they successfully grafted a pig's heart to a sheep by manipulating the immune systems of both animals, a step that may soon allow scientists to grow organs for human transplantation. Trials using pig organs to transplant into humans are on the way. Besides hearts, the technology could be applicable to kidney, liver and pancreatic islet cell transplants. Take a look at a picture of one of the sheep here."
Now they can make pork, ham and bacon all come from the same animal... :P
...didn't they go for something more important, like wings on the back of a pig?
ewe...
One step at a time please ...
I think the point of this experiment was to be able to do interspecies transplants while avoiding rejection, actually replacing the heart would have added one more complication to the experiment that could have confused the results.
Thoughts on tech, Software Engineering, and stuff
Had you read the article, the first sentence would have informed you that the porcine heart was surgically grafted to the neck of the sheep, as opposed to being grown in situ.
The medical and scientific implications of this experiment have less to do with the surgical grafting procedure than with the fact that the process was done in such a way as to prevent immunological rejection of the pig heart by the majority of the sheep in the study. It is this rejection by the immune system that prevents pig parts from being used in organ transplants for humans.
-ks
The angel in the oatmeal.
Just when I was getting tired of ASCIId goatsex, they made goat horror new again.
Thank you, science!
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
And what better way to say, "I love you" than with the gift of a heart-shaped... uh, heart.
Little Debian: America's #1 Snack Distro!
How do you plan to test your immunology theories without doing real research on living things? You don't plan to test them? Fine, go ahead and die your ignorant and natural death but please shut up until then.
Mr. Chase, your steady diet of greasy porkrinds and quarterpounders with cheese has finally caught up with you. Your heart is damaged beyond repair. Your only hope of living longer than six months is a full heart transplant. Unfortuneately the waiting list is quite long and you're of a race that typically has very few registered donors. (Ask Asians about transplants...) The prognosis isn't good.
Fortuneately, we've been doing immune-system research with sheep and pigs that may allow you to use a pig heart in the short... or even long term.
Now, Mister Chase, do you think that the research is so wrong?
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
They're from Nebraska, so what they've done doesn't have significance? The East and West coast folks don't have a monopoly on intelligence or innovation. That heart wasn't held on with bailing wire, Einstein. Whether I agree with it or not, the location has nothing ot do with the significance of the achievement.
Troll.
Terry
Omaha, Nebraska