Minitube International has collaborated with the University of Georgia to achieve a scientific breakthrough resulting in the creation of the world’s first animals generated from porcine induced pluripotent stem cells derived from adult livestock.
The ability to generate pluripotent stem cells, which are capable of changing into nearly any type of cell in the body, is an important step towards the development of regenerative cell therapies to treat and cure debilitating human diseases, such as diabetes. The work was published this May in Stem Cells and Development.
In September 2009, piglets generated from porcine induced pluripotent stem cells were born at the Minitube International Center for Biotechnology, located in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. The induced pluripotent stem cell technology was developed by Steven Stice and Franklin West at the University of Georgia who collaborated with Minitube to test the technology with the production of chimeric pigs. Until now, induced pluripotent stem cells had only previously been used in the generation of live offspring in rodent models.
While the creation of porcine induced pluripotent stem cells is an important advancement to the entire field of stem cell research, the significance of the breakthrough is compounded due to the biological and physiological similarity between pigs and humans. The mouse may serve well for basic laboratory research, but is a poor model for matching human size, cardio vascular dynamics and expression of diseases and conditions.
John Dobrinsky, Executive Director of the Minitube International Center for Biotechnology and Minitube’s lead scientist in this collaboration explains, “Pigs are omnivores, similar in size and physiology to humans. They suffer from many of the human dietary and disease conditions, including hypertension, hypercholesterol, atherosclerosis, insulin resistance and gastric ulcers. The successful creation of porcine induced pluripotent stem cells paves the way for developing pig models to aide in the development of treatments and cures for human diseases.”
Minitube International specializes in cell biology and advanced reproductive biotechnologies and services, including state-of-the-art cloning and in-vitro embryo production in livestock and medical model animal production. Dobrinsky adds, “These specialized services Minitube offers are gaining traction in the medical community as a resource to apply new and innovative cell technologies, like the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, in medical model production.”
Minitube is currently collaborating with MWM Biomodels and VitaeCell Bioscience to make medical model pigs exhibiting human-like expression of Diabetes I, Diabetes II, Atherosclerosis and Cystic Fibrosis, as well as pigs used in cellular and whole organ transplantation research.