There is a severe shortage of human organs available for transplantation as highlighted by the recent stories of young Sarah Murnaghan. Scientists have taken two different approaches in an attempt to generate more organs suitable for transplantation. Briefly, one involves modifying pigs so their organs can be directly transplanted and the other involves growing organs from scratch by seeding a scaffold with human stem cells.
I wonder if anyone has considered using the in situ pig organ(s) themselves as a scaffold to first generate a chimerical human/pig organ and selective kill the pig cells of the target organ over time to make a completely human organ? Obviously, the pig would need major modifications to its immune system but the advantages of an in situ bioreactor over an artificial one are enormous.
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