They were men who had suffered unimaginable injuries.
Two of them were ex-soldiers, wounded by explosives. They had lost anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of the muscles in their legs.
Things seemed hopeless even after surgery and physical therapy. Then came an experimental study, involving pig bladders from research swine.
Continue Reading Scientists Regenerate Leg Muscles Using Pig Bladder Tissue
In 2017, scientists at the Salk Institute made an announcement that almost sounded like science fiction: they had created the first successful animal-human hybrids.
Continue Reading How Human-Pig Hybrids Could Lead to Lab-Grown Organs
Can pig islet cells offer a way to combat Parkinson’s disease?
That’s what researchers at Living Cell Technologies in New Zealand hope to learn with the help of research swine.
Over the past few years, this firm has been implanting cells from the choroid plexus of a pig into the brains of Parkinson’s patients to attempt to stop the illness’ progression.
Continue Reading How Pig Cells Could be Used to Slow Parkinson’s Disease
Research swine are contributing to research studies that focus on restorative therapies to replace lost or diseased human tissues.
While the amount of suitable human cells for transplantation is lacking, porcine cells offer researchers a suitable, and much more available, alternative.
In 2014, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh found that cells derived from porcine organs – in this case, bladders – could work with human stem cells help build muscles in the legs of five men who had suffered severe injuries, including two soldiers injured by IEDs.
All five had suffered from nearly 60 percent to 90 percent of leg muscle loss, and had undergone surgery and physical therapy, with no success.
Continue Reading How Porcine Cells Contribute to Restorative Therapies
Skin permeation studies are extremely important in predicting percutaneous penetration, and porcine tissue models have proven very important in such research.
A recent study conducted at the University College of London compared skin parallel artificial membrane permeation assay (PAMPA), porcine skin and human skin in the permeation of compounds topically placed on each tissue/artificial tissue.
Continue Reading Studying Skin Permeation with Porcine Tissue Models
Porcine heart tissue may prove extremely helpful in finding a solution for cardiac failure.
The process of using detergents to decellularize and then recellularize porcine hearts with differentiated cells made from human patient specific pluripotent stem cells is an innovative area of research that may significantly change the prognosis for heart failure patients.
Continue Reading Finding a Solution for Cardiac Failure with Porcine Heart Tissue
Americans spend more than $20 billion dollars a year on wound care, a figure that’s exacerbated by factors such as infections, repeated surgeries and extended hospital stays.
With that in mind, researchers are seeking innovative ways to enhance wound management. One such method is the porcine urinary bladder matrix.
Two recent studies have shown the effectiveness of porcine tissues in treating wounds in both humans and other animals.
Continue Reading Porcine Urinary Bladder Matrix Used to Treat Wounds
Tissues prepared for shipment.
As we discussed last month, abalation is a method used in treating liver tumors. Our previous blog post looked at thermal abalation and porcine liver tissues.
This week, we’ll look at microwave abalation (MWA) in liver tumor treatments and a study by Italian researchers published in 2015 in the Journal of Cancer Surgery.
Continue Reading Microwave Ablation Study Using Porcine Liver
Surgeons that perform tendon and ligament replacements are always searching for materials that can mimic the performance and load transmissions of the native material.
As often happens, these searches turn to porcine tissue to approximate human tendons.
In a U.S. patent application filed in 2016, LifeCell Corporation of Branchburg, NJ describes a study using a porcine acellular tissue matrix – derived from porcine skin – that was implanted into a human.
The cells that make up our bodies are surrounded by an extracellular matrix – ECM – which provides support for the cells.
When there is damage to the cells, tissue must be regenerated. This regeneration depends on a series of physiological events.
The first stage of this process is the inflammatory phase. After many other cells migrate to the damaged site, the differentiated cells produce and deposit new extracellular matrix.
Studies, such as the one published last year by LifeCell Corporation in New Jersey, have used porcine dermal tissue to make a biocompatible mesh to repair multiple damaged tissues, while minimizing infections or adhesions.
Continue Reading Biocompatible Mesh Graft from Porcine Dermal Tissue
