Latest news with #GuangzhouInstitutesofBiomedicineandHealth
The Star
05-07-2025
- Health
- The Star
Human heart structure beats 21 days in pig embryo in Chinese chimera study
Chinese scientists have, for the first time, cultivated a beating heart structure with human cells in a pig embryo, reporting that the heart continued to beat for 21 days unaided. The study, led by Lai Liangxue's team from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was announced at the International Society for Stem Cell Research's annual meeting in Hong Kong on June 12.
Bangkok Post
04-07-2025
- Health
- Bangkok Post
Human heart structure beats 21 days in pig embryo
BEIJING — Chinese scientists have, for the first time, cultivated a beating heart structure with human cells in a pig embryo, reporting that the heart continued to beat for 21 days unaided. The study, led by Lai Liangxue's team from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was announced at the International Society for Stem Cell Research's annual meeting in Hong Kong on June 12. Previously, the team had cultivated human kidneys in pigs for up to 28 days. According to a report in Nature on June 13, the team reprogrammed human stem cells by introducing genes to prevent cell death and improve their survival in pigs. At the early blastocyst stage - early in pregnancy when a ball of cells forms - they implanted pre-modified human stem cells into pig embryos, which were then transferred to surrogate sows. Researchers observed embryonic hearts growing to a human-equivalent size, comparable to a fingertip, at the same developmental stage - and still beating, according to the Nature report. Using prelabelled luminescent biomarkers, the researchers reported detecting light from human cells coinciding with an embryonic heartbeat. Nature quoted Lai as saying that modified embryos developed typically sized beating hearts, but the report did not say what proportion of the hearts were human cells. The embryos survived only 21 days. Lai suggested at the meeting, "human cells may disrupt pig heart function". In September 2023, Lai's team generated early human kidneys in pig embryos with 70 per cent human cells, in a study featured as a cover story in Cell Stem Cell. Their technology could revolutionise organ transplants. However, clinical applications may take years to develop. At the same conference, a research team led by Shen Xiling from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre announced it had integrated human cells into mouse embryo intestines, livers and even brains. Unlike the technical approach used by Lai's team, the Anderson Cancer Centre team first reprogrammed human stem cells and directly cultivated organoids - or miniature versions of organs grown from stem cells - of the intestine, liver and brain in culture dishes. One month post-birth, around 10% of mice had human intestinal cells; incorporation into the liver and brain was lower. Transplants treat organ failure, but accessibility is limited by a shortage of donor organs. Pigs are suitable donors because they have anatomical similarities to humans, but immune responses that cause human rejection prevent their direct use. Growing human organs in pigs offers a potential solution. This research direction is known as human-animal chimeras, referring to the combination of human and animal cells or tissues within a single organism. However, research on human-animal chimeras has sparked ethical controversies. China introduced regulations last year, stating that human cell transplants into non-human animals for research purposes could only be conducted when other methods could not resolve the research issues. At the conference, Stanford University's Hiromitsu Nakauchi urged further analysis to confirm human origin of the cells in the pig embryo experiment, noting that the localisation of fluorescent cells in the heart made integration with pig cells unclear. Hideki Masaki of the Institute of Science Tokyo added: "For transplantable hearts, organs must be exclusively human to prevent immune rejection." On June 16, Nature
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
China advances in radiation defense for cancer therapy and nuclear fallouts
Chinese researchers have developed a treatment that increases the survival rates of mice exposed to acute. This discovery has the potential to make cancer treatment safer and even improve the likelihood of survival in the event of nuclear war. According to SCMP, this new study uncovers that knocking out certain proteins that play an essential role in the body's immune system, especially to prevent cancer or viruses, could provide significant protection against radiation damage and even help improve cancer radiotherapy. High exposure to radiation breaks down the body's DNA, causing large-scale apoptosis, a widespread cell death that occurs in diseases and during embryonic development. Radiotherapy, which is meant to remove cancerous tumors, also uses high-energy radiation to damage the DNA of cancer cells, preventing them from dividing and growing. However, it can also affect healthy cells near the tumor, and these cells may experience DNA damage and undergo apoptosis. Cancer patients often die from gastrointestinal issues, as radiotherapy can also damage healthy cells in the GI tract. Radiation can also weaken the immune system, making patients more susceptible to infections. Direct radiation exposure in high quantities can occur during a nuclear accident, like the Chornobyl disaster, when large amounts of radioactive material are released into the environment, or in situations like a nuclear explosion, where individuals are directly exposed to a significant dose of radiation in a short period. When it comes to nuclear radiation, studies estimate that in case of a nuclear explosion, way more people would be killed by radioactive fallout rather than the actual blast. Physicians also estimate that around 2.4 million people worldwide will eventually die from cancers due to atmospheric nuclear tests conducted between 1945 and 1980. More than half of the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings died as a result of the fallout from the blasts. At the same time, many survivors faced leukemia, cancer, or other terrible side effects from the radiation. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 led to about 4,000 deaths, mostly from radiation-related cancers years later, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. For now, there are no preventive measures against such radiation. A recent study led by Sun Yirong at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health has demonstrated that turning off the Sting protein (stimulator of interferon genes) can dramatically increase survival rates in mice exposed to radiation—from 11% in normal mice to 67% in Sting-knockout mice. Published in the journal Cell Death and Differentiation, the study found that normal mice suffered severe abdominal injuries. In contrast, mice lacking Sting exhibited significantly enhanced intestinal resilience, with their villi (tiny, finger-like projections that line the inner surface of the small intestine) density being 2.3 times higher. Moreover, the rate of cell death in these modified mice dropped from 45% to 12% following radiation exposure. Sun highlighted the potential of therapies based on this discovery, noting that they could offer robust protection against radiation injury, improve the efficacy of cancer radiotherapy, and advance overall cancer treatment strategies.
