If there’s one thread that runs through all our blog posts, it’s the physiological similarity between pigs and humans, a fact that makes porcine tissues and organs extremely useful in biomedical research. For example, there’s the study conducted by researchers at South China Agricultural University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa that looked for the presence of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in pigs.
This brown adipose tissue “is critical for mammal’s survival in the cold environment,” the authors wrote in the study, published in April in the FASEB Journal. “UCP1 is responsible for the thermogenesis in the BAT and is recognized as a specific marker for BAT.”
The study concluded that pigs do not possess the UPC1 protein which needs to be present for BAT to exist. Therefore, pigs do not possess brown adipose.
Animal Biotech is proud of the part it played in this research, providing porcine cadavers and live pig models. Contact us today to learn how we can help you in your work.