NEW DELHI (PTI): An artificial organ assembled in the laboratory was implanted inside a dog for treating Anemia in a revolution army form of gene therapy.
This was revealed by Dr, Olivier Danes of the Pasteur Institute in Paris at the 16th World Conference of Biochemists and Microbiologists here recently.
Anemia or lack of red blood cells, results when the body does not produce enough of the hormone called “Erythropoietin’ (EPO). What the French Scientists did was to design and create an organ that makes this EPO.
“Neoorgan,” as it was called, was created from the Dog’s own skin cells (Fibroblasts) by first growing them in a test tube and then incorporating into these cells a gene that directs them to make EPO. The made-to-order organ thus created was a shapeless lump of tissue containing some 20 million modified fibroblasts secreting EPO. Dr. Danos said the anemic dog became healthy after the “designer” organ was sewed inside the animal’s abdominal cavity called “omentum.” As this place is rich in blood supply, the organ quickly became part of the body and started secreting EPO that triggered the bone marrow to produce the red blood cells thereby curing the animal of anemia, Dr. Danos said.
By using such neo organs as “factories” for producing the missing substances, several enzyme deficiency besides anemic disorders can be treated, Dr. Danos said, adding in the case of anemic dog “the factory kept working for as long as 10 months.”
In another experiment a severe disease caused by deficiency of the enzyme “beta glucuronidase”” in dogs was cured by implanting “larger neo organs containing as many as 1000 million fibroblasts, the scientist said.
In this case too, the implanted organs produced the missing enzyme for longer than 12 months and “the presence of this enzyme could be detected in liver, spleen and other organs of the animal.”
Prompted by the success of animals studies, the French scientists have now proposed to try out the neo organ approach.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 11, 1994
