Growing human organs in pigs-A dream or reality?

Organ transplantation has been the last line of therapy for saving patients experiencing end-stage organ failure. However, the success of organ transplantation is critically dependent on the availability of donor organs. There are high expectations for research on organ regeneration as a solution to the donor shortage issue faced by transplantation medicine. Thus, generation of human organs from pluripotent stem cells is now one of the ultimate goals of regenerative medicine. In recent years, several approaches to using pluripotent stem cells to generate organs of complex structure and function have been developed. Reproductive biology plays an indispensable role in the development of innovative organ regeneration researches. In this review, we discuss the potential of the animal biotechnology aiming at making human organs using pigs as a platform.