In a First, US Doctors Transplant Pig Heart Into Human Patient


Pig Heart Transplantation: for the first time in medical history, doctors in Maryland hospital in the USA recently transplanted a pig heart into a patient in the last effort to save his life.

Key Points:

  • The surgery went miraculously well and the patient was doing well three days after surgery.
  • However, the next few weeks will be critical will be critical as the patient recovers from the surgery and doctors carefully monitor how his heart is faring.
  • The doctors transplanted a pig heart into the a 57-year-old man named is  called David Bennett from Maryland in the last effort to save his life.
  • It marks the first effort to use animal organs for life-saving transplants.
  • As per Doctors at University of Maryland Medical Center, transplant highlighted that heart from a genetically modified animal can function in human body, without immediate rejection.

Significance:

  • This will be a great breakthrough in the medical history if the pig heart transplant works then there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering.
  • It will fill up the huge shortage of human organs for transplant cases.
  • Scientists over the years have researched on using animal organs instead.

How was this latest surgery different?

  • In the recent transplant, Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig after it underwent gene-editing in a bid to remove a sugar in its cells which is responsible for hyper-fast organ rejection.

Note: The US Food and Drug Administration had allowed the surgery under a compassionate use emergency authorization when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options.

Prior attempts:

  • All prior attempts at animal organ transplants have failed because, patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ.
  • For instance in 1984, Baby Fae, who was a dying infant, lived for 21 days with a baboon heart.

What is Xenotransplantation?

  • The procedure that involves transplantation of living cells, organs or tissues from one species to another is called Xenotransplantation or heterologous transplant.
  • Such cells, organs or tissues are called xenografts or xenotransplants.
  • The technique of Xenotransplantation of human tumour cells into immunocompromised mice is often used in pre-clinical oncology research.


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