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Science Panel urges caution over animal-to-human transplantsDaily Yomiuri On-Line, Japan A Health and Welfare Ministry panel has decided to urge medical institutions nationwide to adopt a cautious approach toward plans to conduct treatment and other medical activities that involve transplants of internal organs and tissue from animals to humans. The recommendation's to be issued by a subcommittee of the ministry's Health Sciences Council, which made the decision Friday, follows a set of strict guidelines on what is known as xenotransplantation announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May. The FDA guidelines stipulate that patients given animal organs or tissue be under medical observation for the rest of their lives, and that blood serums of the donor animals be kept for 50 years after transplantation. If medical institutions actually follow such strict guidelines, however, clinical application of animal-to-human transplants will become virtually impossible in Japan, medical sources warned. At Friday's panel meeting, reports were given on various research cases of animal-to-human transplants and attempts to control them both in and out of Japan. According to one report, Okayama University's medical ethics council recently approved an experiment in which a capsule of rat cells would be implanted into the brain of a patient suffering from Parkinson's disease. Some panel members reportedly expressed concerns over the dangers of animal-to-human transplants, from which infection by an unknown virus has already beenreported abroad. In light of such concerns, the panel approved a proposal made by Fumimaro Takahisa, chairman of the panel and president of Jichi Medical School, to advise the medical institutions to exercise the utmost care in such transplants.
Copyright 2000 The Yomiuri Shimbun |