This Little Piggy Went to the Market, and This Little Piggy Found a Cure

Cystic Fibrosis (referred to as CF) is a chronic disease inherited when two carrier parents both pass their mutated genes onto their child. Currently affecting the lungs and digestive systems of around 30,000 people in the United States alone, it is known as the most common genetic disease in Caucasians. Through the years scientists have been able to make huge break-throughs in CF research, thus increasing the average life expectancy of a CF patient from 10 years to the most recent statistic, 37 years of age.

Most recently, in 2008, a researcher from the University of Missouri, with help from staff at the University of Iowa, has found a way to naturally breed swine to produce piglets with CF. Due to the fact that the physiology of a pig is so close to humans, the piglets display the same symptoms as a newborn with CF. The piglets are flown to Iowa and are immediately placed with physicians who operate on them as they would a newborn with CF. So far, they have been able to get the piglets through the initial stages of the disease allowing them to grow and develop the fatal lung disease caused by CF later in life. Once the lung disease has developed, they can further their testing and answer questions that have never been touched.

Coming from a family that lost a relative to CF and has two others currently fighting the battle against it, this struck me as unbelievable. I'm usually not an advocate for animal testing, but the break-through with these piglets has potential to make a giant leap in CF research. The only other way to perform these kinds of tests is to experiment on children with the disease. Scientists have assured that the piglets are treated with care and are not harmed, only helped. The pig testing gives families with CF patients, like mine, more hope than ever before.

Posted by Crystal Cabral (1)

Update February 13, 2009:
I've been getting a few comments on what treatments CF patients actually go through. Newborns usually go through testing for the disease they check trypsin (a digestive enzyme) levels in the blood. Also other digestive and genetic testing are done on the newborn patients as well. Because CF mainly affects the lungs of the patients, at the first sign of this beating on the patients chest or "postural drainage and percussion" helps encourage coughing. Patients see doctors and therapists that perform respiratory therapy and receive immunizations regularly. Most CF patients wait for a lung transplant but in the mean time are hospitalized regularly for mechanical ventilation. Surgical procedures are usually made on the livers of CF patients due to the thick secretions that block the bile ducts in the liver causing Cirrhosis. In some situations the gall bladder function is extremely low and it must be removed. Another side affect of the disease is insulin-dependent diabetes in which case the patient goes through normal routine of a diabetic, but their pancreas must be watched closely and need to take pancreatic enzyme replacement pills with every meal. The patients must take their medication regularly and be hospitalized and watched closely in anticipation of a successful lung transplant to occur at some point in their lives. For more information on CF patients, treatment, testing, and about the disease in general visit www.cff.org.