Genetic engineering drives the breakthrough of pig models in liver disease research

Abstract

Compared with the widely used rodents, pigs are anatomically, physiologically, and genetically more similar to humans, making them high-quality models for the study of liver diseases. Here, we review the latest research progress on pigs as a model of human liver disease, including methods for establishing them and their advantages in studying cystic fibrosis liver disease, acute liver failure, liver regeneration, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver tumors, and xenotransplantation. We also emphasize the importance of genetic engineering techniques, mainly the CRISPR/Cas9 system, which has greatly enhanced the utility of porcine models as a tool for substantially advancing liver disease research. Genetic engineering is expected to propel the pig as one of the irreplaceable animal models for future biomedical research.

Keywords

Animal model / Liver disease / Genetic engineering / CRISPR/Cas9 / Xenogeneic liver transplantation / Pig

Authors’ contributions

Chenhao Xu: Writing e original draft. Xixi Fang: Visualization, Investigation. Xiao Xu: Supervision. Xuyong Wei: Supervision. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that there is no conflicts of interest. All figures were created with BioRender.com.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No.2021YFA1100502, No.2021YFA1100504), the Hangzhou West Lake Pearl Project of China, and the Hangzhou New Medical Talent Project of China.

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