Pig kidney successfully transplanted to human body

[beschizza]

Originally published at: Pig kidney successfully transplanted to human body | Boing Boing

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[QuickBrownFox]

2 words: Oryx and Crake

[Papasan]

I’d name the company “oink-ment “

[Goryokaku]

This could be literally life-saving, where’s the sense of losing a human being just because there are no spare parts? Bring it on please.
On the other hand, while reading this I had the feeling the authors where on to something.

[Mister44]

This is how the Boar Wars is going to escalate - when they start taking over our bodies to do their bidding!

[deedub]

[Surprise_Puma]

Sounds promising but I need to see Moreau the long-term outcomes before going in whole hog.

[MBrody]

Pig parts have been used in heart valve replacements for years. Using a pig kidney is truly incredible though. You’d think the body would reject it straightaway.

[blackanvil]

Some 20ish years ago this sort of procedure was being discussed, and the big issue was that it would make viral cross-species jumping far too easy, something mitigated in the heart valve procedures by washing out all the pig cells from the structural framework, and cultivating the patients tissue into the resulting scaffolding. I’m guessing the research on virology has advanced enough that this is no longer a concern.

[teknocholer]

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

– George Orwell

[Bobo]

You want Orcs? Because this is how you get orcs…

Or the Hyperpigs from the Alastair Reynolds literary universe. Those were Pig-Human chimeras (not the other way around).

I can just see the dad jokes now… “after the transplant, you’ve become a bit of a bore” “BOAR, get it!”