ORGANS FOR TRANSPLANTATION INDUCED IN VITRO

摘要

Organs for transplantation aiming at establishing a method for the induction in vitro and vital transplantation of organs with the use of embryological or organological techniques so as to evaluate whether or not organs induced in vitro actually function in vivo, and opening the way for the transplantation therapy for higher animals suffering from congenital renal diseases, etc. In the presence of a member of the TGF- beta family such as activin, an organ (kidney, heart, pancreas, intestinal tract, etc.) having been induced in vitro is cultured until a definite developmental stage appropriate for the developmental stage of a recipient animal of the same species to thereby provide an organ which can function in vivo after transplantation. The developmental stage can be examined by using as a molecular marker a genomic DNA which is expressed depending on the developmental stage of the organ having been induced in vitro.