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The genetic engineering behind pig-to-human transplants - Ars Technica

The genetic engineering behind pig-to-human transplants - Ars Technica

The genetic engineering behind pig-to-human transplants - Ars Technica
Jan 20, 2022 1 min, 4 secs

However, those efforts were secondary to work that was done years earlier to engineer the pig's genome so that its cells were less likely to trigger a human immune response.

The primary focus of these changes is to reduce the likelihood that the human immune system will recognize the pig's tissue as foreign.

Three of the pig genes that were deleted encode enzymes that attach carbohydrate molecules to proteins that reside on the surface of cells.

The precise arrangement of the carbohydrate molecules, however, can vary from species to species, so the molecules used by one species might be recognized as foreign by the immune system of another.

The deleted pig genes encode enzymes that generate carbohydrate modifications that aren't produced by human cells.

In addition, a number of human genes were added to the pig genome.

This system consists of a number of proteins that attach to cells that are recognized by antibodies; once there, they form holes in the membranes, killing the cell.

The immune system typically uses this process to kill infected cells, but it could also kill foreign cells, such as those in a transplant.

Another gene added to the pig genome was the human version of CD47, which helps prevent the immune system from identifying and swallowing abnormal cells.

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