London - The use of pig kidneys and hearts for human transplants could have edged closer following evidence published today that retroviruses present in pigs do not infect humans.
The study, which appears in the journal Science, could help alleviate fears that using pig organs for transplantation risks spreading an HIV-type epidemic to humans. The findings could be enough to persuade regulators to allow limited clinical trials, probably involving transplants of pig kidneys into people.
