Methods and Tools for Detection and Evaluation of the Risks of Porcine Endogenous Retrovirus in Porcine to Human Xenotransplantation

Xenotransplantation has been defined by the Public Health Service as any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation, or infusion into a human recipient of either (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs (PHS 2001). The promise of xenotransplantation is to provide a replenishable, controlled source of cells, tissues, and organs, in order to alleviate the chronic shortage available for human allotransplantation.