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Pigs will become organ donors for humans
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
Organ growing is a promising bioengineering technology that involves creating fully functional organs in a laboratory for transplantation into humans.
Scientists continue to work in this direction and have achieved significant results; for example, researchers have managed to grow parts of the heart, intestines, muscles, and even the brain in test tubes.
It is likely that in the coming decades, patients in need of a transplant will not have to wait months for a suitable donor.
Scientists are now making the first successful attempts to transplant artificial organs that are grown from the patient's own stem cells.
Artificial organs, according to the scientists themselves, are needed not only to solve the problem with donors. Artificially created organs can help in studying the mechanism of development of some diseases, for example, on miniature human stomachs, which scientists managed to grow in the laboratory a couple of years ago, experts successfully study the development of diseases, in particular, ulcers and cancerous tumors, and this, in turn, will allow to develop more effective methods of treatment of these diseases.
But today bioengineers are proposing to grow donor organs using a completely new technology. In Great Britain, the possibility of growing organs for human transplantation not in a test tube, but in the body of an animal is being considered. If researchers can prove that this approach to transplantation has great prospects, then the authorities may grant permission to use animals for scientific purposes.
It is expected that the new technology of growing organs for human transplantation will receive the "go-ahead" from the authorities in the near future. In the United States, specialists have been working in this direction for quite a long time.
The experiments are being conducted on pigs and sheep, into which experts have introduced embryos that have two DNAs – human and animal. The main goal of this experiment is to grow animals whose organs will not only be suitable for humans, but also will not be rejected after transplantation. The research is being conducted at the universities of California and Minnesota, but the researchers have not yet received any documented evidence of the effectiveness of the new technology.
If the unusual organ transplant method is approved, the UK will become the first country to allow transplants of organs grown using such an unusual method.
The shortage of donor organs is acute not only in the UK, but also in a number of other countries. In the vast majority of cases, dying people (or their relatives) refuse to bequeath their bodies for the benefit of science or to save other people. In addition, another problem arises - in recent years, more and more people suffer from obesity, and organs in this case are not suitable for transplantation.
It is also worth noting another problem in transplantology today: many patients who need a transplant of one or another organ do not wait for a suitable donor and die.
Researchers are confident that the method of growing organs in an animal's body will help solve several problems and save the lives of millions of people around the world.
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