Long-term safety from transmission of porcine endogenous retrovirus after pig-to-nonhuman primate corneal transplantation

摘要

BackgroundThe risk of xenozoonosis mainly by porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) has been considered as one of the main hurdles in xenotransplantation and therefore should be elucidated prior to the clinical use of porcine corneal grafts. Accordingly, an investigation was performed to analyze the infectivity of PERVs from porcine keratocytes to human cells, and the long-term risk of transmission of PERVs was determined using pig-to-nonhuman primate (NHP) corneal transplantation models.