Determination of the Copy Number of Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses (PERV) in Auckland Island Pigs Repeatedly Used for Clinical Xenotransplantation and Elimination of PERV-C.

ABSTRACT: Auckland Island pigs represent an inbred population of feral pigs isolated on the sub-Antarctic island for over 100 years. The animals have been maintained under pathogen-free conditions in New Zealand; they are well characterized virologically and have been used as donor sources in first clinical trials of porcine neonatal islet cell transplantation for the treatment of human diabetes patients. The animals do not carry any of the xenotransplantation-relevant viruses, and in the first clinical trials, no porcine viruses, including porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) were transmitted to the human recipients. PERVs pose a special risk in xenotransplantation, since they are part of the pig genome. When the copy number of PERVs in these animals was analyzed using droplet digital PCR and pr

SUBMITTER: Fiebig U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10820294 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature