For proxy studies into the immune system, swine are proving to be one of the most reliable sources of data. Their immune system is quite similar to human immune systems in many ways, allowing for a wide range of useful research that continues to help save lives!

Animal Biotech Industries is one of America’s leaders in providing high-quality, research-grade porcine tissue, organs, and other materials to researchers around the country. We’re proud to support cutting-edge immunology work, and excited about recent research being done!

The Benefits of Porcine Tissue for Immunology Work

In the quest to understand the complexities of the immune system and develop effective treatments for diseases, researchers have increasingly turned to swine as a valuable model. This shift is driven by several compelling advantages that pigs offer over traditional research animals. This section explores the key reasons why porcine tissue has become central to cutting-edge immunological studies.

High Similarities to Human Systems

A growing body of research has shown that the porcine immune system is approximately 80% similar to humans, compared to only 10% similar in rodents. This includes relatively rare structures, such as tonsils. This instantly makes swine good candidates for immunology research.

Easy Availability

Unlike apes – another close match to humans – pigs are easy to breed and keep, and far less dangerous than most apes. Further, because pigs are widely used as food animals, many porcine organs and other tissues can be obtained as by-products of the agricultural industry, reducing both care costs and research-based animal deaths.

Disease Susceptibility

Swine are susceptible to a wide range of diseases that also affect humans, and it is often commonplace for diseases such as influenza to jump between pigs and humans. This makes them a good choice for infectious disease research.

Neonatal Immunities

One unusual aspect of swine is that developing fetuses do not receive antibodies while in the womb, and only receive antibodies via the mother’s milk. So, piglets are born with no natural disease immunities, and can potentially be kept in that state for weeks in laboratory conditions. Their “blank slate” immune systems allow piglets to be used extensively in neonatal disease research, as well as vaccine work.

Notable Lines of Swine Immunity Research

Research has shown that numerous specific aspects of swine anatomy and metabolism offer profitable options for human immunology research.

Pig Integumentary System

The skin of pigs is remarkably similar to that of humans. According to research in Molecular Immunology, pig skin is similar in its “general structure, thickness, hair follicle content, pigmentation, collagen, and lipid composition.” This makes it an exceptional research subject for immunology, UV exposure, radiation, and healing, among other topics.

That particular research suggests that the porcine integumentary system could be particularly effective for testing needleless delivery systems for medicines and vaccines. Such work would be a boon for disease-fighting around the world.

Porcine Lymphatic System

While the swine lymphatic system is not identical to humans, it has substantial similarities – as discussed in this 2009 study from Developmental & Comparative Immunology. It particularly points to the possibilities of using pig spleens for trauma research, as well as studying immunological gut responses.

Even today, we’re only scratching the surface of what could be accomplished by studying the lymphatic system of swine.

Oral Cavity and Tonsils

As one of the few animals with tonsils, the oral cavities of pigs have become a subject of increased research in recent years. Studies into the tonsils of slaughtered hogs have helped reveal the health of farmed pigs, as well as providing insight into their suitability for human research.

Numerous other studies have been done into the persistence of diseases in pig tonsils, such as this work from BMC Veterinary Research. This work can help improve the suitability of swine tissues for disease work, as well as add insight into the operation of human tonsils.

Porcine T-Cell Research

More recently, the T-cells in swine which fight disease have become a popular topic of immunology research, as described by Molecular Immunology. While rodents have been traditionally used for such research, the significant differences between their immune systems and humans make it difficult to directly translate research between the two species.

Pigs, on the other hand, can serve as an excellent intermediary – research is first done on rodents, then replicated on pigs as a test of whether the research would apply to humans.

Xenotransplantation

Perhaps the ultimate end goal of all swine-based immunology research, at least as it applies to humans, is furthering the possibility of transplanting pig organs into people. The problem of the demand for organs far outpacing supply. This leads to numerous preventable deaths every year, and pig organs appear to be by far the best potential option for xenotransplantation.

We’ve already seen the first steps towards this, as there have recently been two relatively successful pig heart xenotransplants. The pigs had been genetically modified to be more compatible with human immune systems, reducing the chances of organ rejection. As porcine immune research continues, there is little doubt such efforts will continue to yield life-changing results.

Saving Lives with Swine Research

The field of porcine immunology research has exploded in the 21st century. This has created an exciting new time for anyone in disease or immune-system research. Greater understanding of pig immune systems will translate directly into better outcomes for both pigs and humans alike.

Animal Biotech Industries can be a trusted partner in your swine research! We specialize in providing highly reliable post-mortem tissues, harvested to order by dedicated experts. Proper shipment procedures are a high priority for our team, ensuring every swine organ, tissue, or fluid we ship arrives ready for quality research. We offer pig skin, lymphatic systems, porcine teeth and mandibles, intestinal passages, and much more.

Please browse our online catalog to see the range of products we offer. If you don’t see the materials you need, just contact us and we’ll make it happen.

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Huntington’s is a neurodegenerative disease that leaves its victims incapacitated in its later stages, and in need of personal care.

Symptoms usually present between the ages of 30 and 50 and include trouble concentrating, difficulty swallowing, clumsiness and involuntary jerking. People with the illness rarely survive more than 20 years after their symptoms first manifest.

But there may be hope for people with Huntington’s disease, thanks to a joint effort by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta and Jinan University in China, working with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique used in swine.

In the past, studies like this one would have used rodents as their main animal model, but these research teams concluded that pigs made a better fit due to their close biological similarity to humans.

“We think the pig model will fill an important gap,” Li Shihua, professor of human genetics at Emory University and one of the study’s co-senior authors, told the Telegraph. “In pigs, the pattern of neurodegeneration is almost the same as in humans, and there have been several treatments tested in mouse models that didn’t translate to humans.”

This study is yet another instance of how using swine as models in biomedical research can lead to breakthroughs that help human patients.

In the past we’ve written about how using swine as models in biomedical research showed new insights into spinal diseases and promising methods for treating diabetes.

Animal Biotech is proud to have played a role in these types of projects. We can customize different varieties of post-mortem tissues and tissue blocks or suggest the type of tissue that would work best for your project.

Contact us today to see how Animal Biotech can assist you and your team.

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For decades, porcine tissue has been a valuable asset for biomedical research, given that pigs share many anatomical and physiological similarities with humans. One crucial research area that shows promise is the treatment of diabetes. In 2008, a Scientific American report detailed the efforts of MicroIslet Inc., a California-based biotech firm, to develop a diabetes therapy that utilizes cross-species cell transplantation utilizing porcine islet cells.

For this therapy, developed at Duke University, researchers transplanted insulin-producing porcine islet cells into patients with Type 1 diabetes. MicroIslet’s cell encapsulation method uses porcine cells because pig tissue offers an unlimited supply of pancreas cells, unlike human donor pancreatic islets. The porcine cells can produce insulin without the immune system attacking and destroying them.

According to Keith Hoffman, a MicroIslet board member, this type of therapy can utilize human-to-human islet cell transplants. However, it is not a commercially viable solution since there is limited access to human pancreatic tissue. This limited supply of islet cells means millions of patients have no access to crucial transplants that can help control their diabetes.

Cross-Species Transplantation Research

Encapsulated cross-species transplantation promises to be a feasible solution for millions of diabetics. The MicroIslet & Duke University project is a good example of how researchers can use porcine tissue models to make important biomedical breakthroughs. In many other ways, pig tissue has proven to be an indispensable asset in the development of critical therapeutics.

The most notable include burn healing and liver transplantation. Wound healing research utilizes porcine epithelium, and consequently, several studies have produced promising results. A 2016 Brazilian study used a porcine tissue model to compare the efficacy of reference products used to treat dermal burns.

The researchers investigated the effects of a bio-membrane compared to a topical ointment and interactive dressing. The study offered valuable insight into how the bio-membrane promoted better healing of burn wounds, collagen deposition, and scar repair compared to the other treatments. Porcine tissue has also proven to be useful in helping liver transplant patients.

Liver transplants, the primary treatment for many fatal liver diseases, face various challenges, including hernias. A team of Austrian researchers discovered that porcine biological patches were effective in repairing hernias following liver transplants. The porcine dermal matrix reduced wound infections and hernia recurrence compared to other synthetic meshes.

Conclusion

Overall, pig tissues have the potential to revolutionize biomedical research. The medical discoveries above and many others would not be possible without high-quality porcine tissues. Animal biotech companies have an important role to play in aiding clinical research seeking to improve human health.

As one of the leading firms with twenty years of experience in harvesting, storage, and delivery, Animal Biotech Industries is dedicated to supplying high-quality post-mortem tissue for medical research purposes. Our offerings include porcine organs, pig tissues, porcine blood, glands, and secretions, which are ethically harvested by a team of expert physiologists and anatomists.

Our tissue harvesting experts also advise biomedical researchers, Universities, and government organizations on the proper selection of porcine tissues based on research requirements. Contact us today and learn how we can help with your next research project. 

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Porcine tissues, organs, and organ blocks are playing an important part in the understanding of role of the extracellular matrix (or ECM) scaffold of the pancreas, which in turn helps advance regenerative medicine as it applies to restoring the of pancreas’ endocrine function.

A 2014 study published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology explains this very cutting-edge approach to improving on the current diabetic therapies.

“ECM scaffolds from whole animal or human-cadaveric organs can be generated through detergent-based decellularization,” the authors of the report write. “Current decellularization techniques are capable of removing DNA, cellular material and cell surface antigens from the ECM scaffold while preserving attachment sites, structural integrity and vascular channels.”

While previous research indicated that pancreatic decellularization could disrupt ECM protein ultrastructure, more recent characterization studies involving decellularized pancreases from swine found the “sweeping presence of the essential structural proteins including different types of collagen, elastin, fibronectin, and laminin.”

The study concludes regenerative medicine technology offers significant potential to reduce the “dire shortage” of transplantable organs.

Animal Biotech is proud to be a part of this kind of work over the past two decades, providing researchers with porcine tissues, as well as supplying information, consulting and training.

We’ve written before about how research swine like the kind we offer have been instrumental in everything from studying pancreatic cancer to treating spinal cord injuries.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you in your next project.

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Pedicle screw systems have been the standard method of treatment of spinal diseases.

However, these screws can loosen over time after placement during surgery, which makes them a less-than-ideal choice.

But how can surgeons improve on this practice? The answer may lie within porcine tissues and organs. More specifically, within pig lumbar spines.

Pig lumbar spines have been used to determine a better type of treatment for lumbar spine repair due to their anatomical size, mechanical characteristics and cost. By mimicking the human spine, pig lumbar spines provide an important tool for human spine repair research and Pedicle Screw Testing.

New research published in the journal Jove earlier this year took a detailed look at an evaluation method for transpedicular screws using in vitro porcine lumbar spines.

The researchers, from a group of hospitals in South Korea, concluded that “a porcine model of pedicle screw fixation provides a key clinical platform to investigate efficient fixation techniques that cause fewer complications in patients with osteoporosis.” This study adds to the growing field of Pedicle Screw Testing using porcine models.

This study is just one more example of how a porcine model can help the medical world better treat human patients.

In the past, we’ve reported on the use of pigs in everything from treating pancreatic cancer to improving wound healing. And Animal Biotech is proud to take part in this kind of work, providing researchers porcine tissues and organs. Contact us today to learn how we can help you in your next study.

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Pressure ulcer prevention is important for healing, and the porcine model is an integral part of research into this subject.

Among that research is a study published in October in the journal Wound Repair and Regeneration. As the authors of the study note, 2.5 million patients develop pressure ulcers each year in America, with treatment costs exceeding $11 billion.

“Therefore, there remains a critical need to develop preventative methods to protect the skin from pressure-induced injury,” the authors write. “One approach has been to develop pressure-relief dressings or padding, applied as an adjunct to pressure ulcer prevention. However, understanding of the specific mechanical properties required to protect the skin remains limited.”

These researchers – most of them from the University of Manchester in Great Britain, conducted a study designed to examine the connection between the mechanical properties of gel-like pressure reducing devices and their effectiveness at protecting against pressure-induced cellular damage using an ex-vivo porcine skin tissue model.

“We show that dressing mechanical properties influence ex vivo efficacy, with a stiffer dressing providing protection across a range of compressive forces,” the authors write.

These findings are in keeping with past studies we’ve reported on here, showing porcine models’ ability to treat wound infections after liver transplants and help heal dermal burns.

If you’re interested in learning more about how porcine tissue can help you in your research, contact Animal Biotech.

We’ve spent more than a quarter century helping the biomedical research world use porcine biological materials to make valuable discoveries. We offer a wide variety of porcine organs and tissue for research, including glands, blood vessels, bone and connective tissue, and porcine skin tissue.

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But a new project at Maryland’s Agricultural Research Services is looking at pigs in a way aimed at promoting both human and animal health.

The work is being done by nutritionist Harry Dawson and microbiologist Gloria Solano-Aguilar, who are studying the effect of nutrition on immune and inflammatory responses at the ARS’s Beltzville Human Nutrition Research Center.

According to the USDA’s Ag Research Magazine, Dawson developed the Porcine Translational Research Database of genes and proteins to compare with those predominantly studied in humans and rodents.

Dawson’s research found that “humans share far more immune-system-related genes and proteins with pigs than they do with mice,” the magazine said. The testing gives researchers crucial tools for measuring porcine immune response, and show pigs are a good species for additional testing.

Pigs and Obesity

Meanwhile, Solano-Aguilar’s research looked at how pigs can serve as a model for human obesity studies. Working with Kati Hanhineva of the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, the study looked at metabolic changes in pig tissues and biofluids of pigs on a high-fat diet.

The researchers looked at juvenile pigs as a model for childhood obesity.

“This is an important area because it is generally difficult to evaluate obesity-related metabolic disturbances in children,” Solano-Aguilar told Ag Research.

The researchers looked at metabolic changes in pig liver, pancreas brain and intestinal tissue. They wanted to compare whether the changes in the tissue were present in the pig’s urine and plasma, fluids typically collected in human clinical studies.

The pigs were fed either a maintenance diet or a high-fat diet. The researchers found changes in lipid metabolites in all tissue samples from the high-fat diet pigs. Some tissue-dependent changes were not shown in the biofluids.

Using pigs for biomedical research was useful for studying metabolic effects triggered by a high-fat diet, said Joseph Urban, a coauthor at the BHNRC laboratory.

“Biofluids give us part of the picture,” Urban says, “but being able to look at organ tissue helped us target changes that are indicative of both disease and poor response to diet.”

For nearly three decades, Animal Biotech has been helping advance this type of work by providing high quality porcine tissues to biomedical researchers.

 Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you with your work.

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Hernias occur after about 30 percent of orthotropic liver transplant patients, or OLT.

As discussed earlier this year in the Germany Journal of Gastroenterology, a group of Austrian researchers looked at this problem and found that use of porcine non-cross-biological patches seemed feasible for hernia repair after OLT.

The study notes that “wound infections in these patients have been observed with other meshes. Further investigation is needed to prove potential superiority of this biological to the other meshes.”

This research into liver transplant patients is yet another example of the way porcine tissue can help the human body repair itself. As we’ve reported in past blog posts, other studies have looked at how pig models can help repair the human heart and treat cancer patients.

Animal Biotech is proud of the role it has played in this sort of work over the last 26 years. We’ve dedicated ourselves to providing high quality post mortem tissues and organs to the biomedical research community.

Contact us today to learn more on how we can help you make your next discovery.

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Pigs are increasingly being used as an alternative to animals like dogs and monkeys when it comes to surgical procedures and preclinical toxicology testing of pharmaceuticals.

That’s according to research published in the journal Veterinary Pathology.

“There are unique advantages to the use of swine in this setting given that they share with humans similar anatomic and physiologic characteristics involving the cardiovascular, urinary, integumentary, and digestive systems,” the authors write in the article “Swine as Models in Biomedical Research and Toxicology Testing.”

They continue:

“Ethical considerations, as well as the existence of significant amounts of background data, from a regulatory perspective, provide further support for the use of this species in experimental or pharmaceutical research studies. It is likely that pigs and minipigs will become an increasingly important animal model for research and pharmaceutical development applications.”

The report was authored by Michael M. Swindle of the Medical University of South Carolina, along with A. Makin of LAB Research in Demark, A.J. Herron of Center for Comparative Medicine and Department of Pathology & Immunology Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, F.J. Chubb, Jr. of Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinarian Medicine and K.S. Frazier of GlaxoSmithKline.

The study lists a number of different types of procedures where porcine tissues helped researchers:

• Intravascular stents
• Vascular aneurysms
• Prosthetic valves
• Cardiac transplants
• Ischemic heart disease
• Ventricular assist devices
• Digestive system models

In the past, we’ve written about similar studies that looked at how porcine tissue research can help in the development of various medical procedures. Earlier this year, we discussed new research that advanced the possibility of transplanting pig organs into human patients. A study published in Wound Medicine last year showed how porcine cells can help with wound healing. And porcine tissue has given researchers new insight into treating heart disease.

Animal Biotech is proud of the role it’s played in research like this. For close to three decades, we’ve offered support to the biomedical field by providing researchers with pig organs, glands and tissues. Contact us today to find out how we can help with your next project.

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The University of Illinois has been working for many years on early detection screening methods for cancer in order to help treat cancer patients with very aggressive types of cancer.  It is critical to catch and treat all cancers in the earliest stage possible but this is especially critical concerning cancers such as pancreatic, hepatic and lung.  The University found that the pig was the better model to help develop these screening tests because they are so anatomically similar to humans.

Researchers at The University of Illinois are able to induce cancer tumors that would be extremely similar to human cancer tumors.  The pigs (“The Oncopig Model”) are genetically altered in order to allow the researchers to trigger certain types of tumors with a specific enzyme and monitor the animals for any increased levels that would cue them in to the cancer at an early stage.

Individual tissues and cells can be targeted specifically which allows the researchers to very closely monitor the cancer location within the animal.   Acoustic MedSystems (AMS) has developed several devices for treatment of cancer tumors in a minimally invasive, image guided method. They have teamed up with The University of Illinois to use the “oncopig” to develop their cancer detection screening procedures. AMS is working with U of I to help test a new ultrasound therapy that they have developed.

This is a very important stride in helping to treat cancer patients as early as possible and gain the best possible outcome for the patient.

In the past, we’ve discussed how porcine tissue can help researchers uncover new information about Marfan syndrome.

Animal Biotech is proud to assist researchers in this kind of work. For over 25 years, we have helped the biomedical research community by supplying it with post-mortem tissues, as well as information and consultation. Contact us today to find out how we can assist you in your work.

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In June of this year the USDA set aside $3.9 million for two licensed animal vaccine companies to develop vaccines for PEDv. To date that money has not made it to them.  The two companies, Zoetis and Harrisvaccines, however have developed vaccines and are currently field testing them.

Both are testing the PEDv vaccine administered to research swine sows of infected herds for the purpose of developing passive immunity through milk colostrum for their piglets. The Zoetis vaccine went on the market in September and the company is collecting efficacy and potency data.  The Harrisvaccine, likewise, is being tested on select farms as well. Preliminary data from both companies looks promising as the litters from vaccinated sows are showing low death losses and minimal diarrhea as compared to control groups.

Please click to read the The New York Times article: Farmers Gain Weapon Against Devastating Pig Virus by Stephanie Strom. Oct. 9, 2014

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Dear Valued Client,

The USDA has confirmed that porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has been identified in the United States for the first time, through testing at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory. This is not a new virus, nor is it a regulatory/reportable disease. Since PEDV is widespread in many countries, it is not a trade-restricting disease, but rather a production-related disease. PEDV may appear clinically to be the same as transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) virus with acute diarrhea. This PEDV is not zoonotic and poses no risk to the meat industry. An outbreak, however, can be devastating in swine production as well as research facilities with death rates of 30-100 percent in young pigs. PEDV spreads mostly by ingestion of contaminated feces. The most common sources of infected feces are pigs, trucks, boots, clothing, or other inanimate objects such as vehicles, trailers, or transfer equipment. Cleaning, disinfection, and drying of contaminated surfaces are effective measures to prevent PEDV contamination. PEDV is susceptible to many common disinfectants such as Clorox, virkon-s, 1 stroke, tek-trol and others. Producers as well as end users need to develop and maintain strict biosecurity protocols in order to prevent the virus from affecting domestic swine used in biomedical research. We have been working with our veterinarian and government sources to protect our herd via monitoring and the continual upgrading of our biosecurity program.

Please note that ABI is free of PEDV due to a very strict biosecurity plan which has been in place since October 2013. A strict quarantine program exists where no replacement animals, animal based feed products, commercial or agricultural vehicles, visitors, or any other potential vectors, etc. can enter the ABI production facility. In order to expand our biosecurity efforts, we are requesting that all of our clients do two things:

First, we would like to ask that you keep your animal transfer equipment and animal receiving areas clean and sanitized at all times especially before and during ABI deliveries. Please be sure to keep ABI animals separated from any other swine in your facility. Please take biosecurity measures of your own to make sure our animals remain separated from swine or other contaminants from other vendor’s animals in your facility that may be carrying the virus.

Second, we would like to ask you and your investigators and colleagues to please consider ordering castrated males from ABI whenever possible in place of females. Our females are in high demand for studies that strictly require the use of animals for studies that involve the female anatomy or physiology. ABI maintains a closed herd, which requires us to raise our own female replacements and we therefore must keep a rather large pool of genetically superior and outbred gilts for maintenance of the breeding herd. We therefore ask your researchers to use castrated males whenever possible. Clients can be assured that there is little difference in behavior, growth or physiological function between castrated males and females other than the female reproductive system. All males are castrated at three days of age and are well healed and adapted before they are sold, even as young animals, to clients.

We greatly appreciate your assistance with this important matter and wish to let you know that we greatly appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Dr. Gary Brubaker, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.
CEO

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