SHEEP CLONING FIRM NOW AIMING FOR PIGS

March 26, 1997

EDINBURGH (AP) -- The company that helped clone Dolly the sheep said Monday that it hopes to clone pigs with hearts suitable for human transplant.

PPL Therapeutics, which is collaborating with the scientific team that cloned Dolly, said it hoped the research would ultimately ease a massive shortage in donor organs and save millions of lives.

Scientists are already studying using pig hearts, livers and kidneys because there are not enough human organs available for people who need them.

But some have raised concerns that transplants from animals could introduce new viruses to the human population. A study by British scientists published this month supports these concerns. It found that a virus apparently found in healthy pigs can infect human tissue.

Despite a moratorium in Britain on using animal organs in humans, PPL Therapeutic's managing director, Ron James, said he plans to go ahead with the research.

At the announcement of PPL's first annual results, he said, "By the time we get around to trials, either the moratorium will have been lifted or we will be able to do them somewhere else."

James said other companies were attempting to be the first to develop the technology. Unmodified pigs' hearts are already a good match for humans in terms of size and function, though they can be rejected by the human body.

Specially created animals that produce human sugars on the surfaces of their organs, however, could fool the recipient into accepting the transplanted heart as human.