Loading patent…
AssigneesThe University of Tokyo, National Federation of Agricultural Coopertive Associations
InventorsKazuo Fukawa, Tetsuya Ito, Mai Kamikawa, Yutaka Sendai, Hiromitsu Nakauchi, Satoshi Yamazaki, Motoo Watanabe
Estimating the term…
The present invention discloses a novel means capable of producing a blood chimeric animal in which a state of retaining blood cells originating in a heterologous animal at a high percentage is sustained for a long period of time. The method for producing a non-human animal that retains blood cells originating in a heterologous animal, according to the present invention, comprises transplanting hematopoietic cells of a heterologous animal into a non-human animal, in which hematopoietic cells the function of a gene that acts on the hematopoietic system is modified, The gene that acts on the hematopoietic system is, for example, Lnk gene, When a medium to large mammal is used as a recipient, the survival rate of hematopoietic cells originating in a heterologous animal is dramatically increased such that blood chimerism of 10% or more can be maintained even in a 16 month old animal.
A non-human animal that retains blood cells originating in a heterologous animal, in which the hematopoietic cells originating in the heterologous animal survive, said hematopoietic cells being cells in which a function of Lnk gene is inhibited, and which retains the blood cells originating in the heterologous animal in the circulating blood and has a chimerism of nucleated blood cells of 10% or more at the age of 3 months old or at a time point 3 months after the transplantation of the hematopoietic cells, wherein the heterologous animal is of a species different from the non-human animal, wherein said non-human animal is a pig, and wherein the heterologous animal is a mammal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.