What applications does genetic engineering and cloning have for xenotransplantion?
As of July 2008, nearly 100,000 Americans were on the organ transplant waiting list, with approximately 90% of candidates waiting for either a kidney or liver transplant (www.optn.org). Compounding this problem is the fact that allotransplantation, or the transplant of human organs into human recipients, cannot keep up with this growing list of recipients. Animal biotechnology offers a solution to this problem through xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation, which is the surgical transplantation of organs or tissues from one species to another, could be used to alleviate the demand for human organs for transplantation. For example, a liver from a pig could be transplanted into a human recipient. Pigs are considered a good species for xenotransplantation because their internal organs are approximately the same size as human organs. In addition, pig organs are physiologically similar to human organs. However, one of the problems associated with using pig organs for xenotransplantation i
