Miniature swine are valuable animal models for biomedical research such as transplantation. At Sinclair Bio Resources our Missouri colony of Yucatan miniature swine is MHC haplotype-defined for transplantation studies, making the Yucatan breed of miniature swine a significant breed for this research. MHC genes of our Yucatan breeding stock have been cloned and sequenced for the swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) class I and class II and the characterizations of allele-specific monoclonal antibodies.
SLA typing is important for the use of miniature swine as models in study of immune responses and disease resistance in xenotransplantation research, thus SLA-characterized resource herds are a vital resource. Since the SLA polymorphism of the Yucatan breeding stock in Sinclair Bio Resources’ Missouri herd has been characterized, scientists are able to obtain Yucatan miniature swine of the same or different haplotypes. We also maintain frozen ear-punch tissue of piglets for further MHC/SLA typing to be performed as required by client needs.
