{"id":23606,"date":"2025-03-10T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T09:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23606"},"modified":"2025-03-10T09:26:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T09:26:24","slug":"for-patients-needing-transplants-hope-arrives-on-tiny-hooves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23606","title":{"rendered":"For Patients Needing Transplants, Hope Arrives on Tiny Hooves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On a 300-acre farm in an undisclosed location in rural Wisconsin, surrounded by fields dotted with big red barns and bordered by wild blue chicory and goldenrod, live some of the most pampered pigs in the world.<\/p>\n

They are delivered by C-section to protect them from viruses that sows can carry, and bottle-fed instead of nursed for the same reason. They are kept under warming lights and monitored around the clock for the first days of their lives, given toys and marshmallows as treats. <\/p>\n

But they don\u2019t get to go outside and play in the dirt like other pigs. They are clones and constitutionally weak, genetically engineered to have kidneys, hearts and livers more compatible with the human body.<\/p>\n

These miniature pigs are part of a bold scientific experiment that takes advantage of breakthroughs in cloning and gene editing to realize the centuries-old dream of xenotransplantation \u2014 the transfer of animal kidneys, hearts, livers and other organs into humans who need them.<\/p>\n

Success could bring riches to the two biotech companies that are leaders in this space, the Cambridge, Mass.-based eGenesis and the Blacksburg, Va.-based Revivicor, owned by United Therapeutics Corporation. The demand for organs is huge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Pregnant pigs at eGenesis. \u201cThey are the most spoiled pigs around,\u201d said one of their caretakers.<\/span>Kevin Serna for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On a 300-acre farm in an undisclosed location in rural Wisconsin, surrounded by fields dotted with big red barns and bordered by wild blue chicory and goldenrod, live some of the most pampered pigs in the world.They are delivered by C-section to protect them from viruses that sows can carry, and bottle-fed instead of nursed for the same reason. They are kept under warming lights and monitored around the clock for the first days of their lives, given toys and marshmallows as treats. But they don\u2019t get to go outside and play in the dirt like other pigs. They are clones and constitutionally weak, genetically engineered to have kidneys, hearts and livers more compatible with the human body.These miniature pigs are part of a bold scientific experiment that takes advantage of breakthroughs in cloning and gene editing to realize the centuries-old dream of xenotransplantation \u2014 the transfer of animal kidneys, hearts, livers and other organs into humans who need them.Success could bring riches to the two biotech companies that are leaders in this space, the Cambridge, Mass.-based eGenesis and the Blacksburg, Va.-based Revivicor, owned by United Therapeutics Corporation. The demand for organs is huge.Pregnant pigs at eGenesis. \u201cThey are the most spoiled pigs around,\u201d said one of their caretakers.Kevin Serna for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23608,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23606"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23609,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606\/revisions\/23609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}