A transplant team in the USA claims to have connected a genetically modified pig heart to a human patient for the first time. The organ was used in a 57-year-old man with life-threatening heart disease on Friday in a clinic in Baltimore, Maryland, the hospital said.
According to the US media, the operation lasted eight hours, the transplanted heart has since started work and the patient is fine. “This organ transplant shows for the first time that a genetically modified animal heart can function like a human heart without the body rejecting it immediately,” said the University of Maryland Medical Center.
The patient – who was classified as unsuitable for a human donor heart – will continue to be closely monitored over the coming weeks. “This was a breakthrough operation and brings us one step closer to resolving the shortage of organs,” executive doctor Bartley Griffith was quoted as saying. The patient said it was a life or death decision, according to the statement: “I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last chance”. He is looking forward to recovering and getting out of bed again.
The history of xenografts is long and marked by rainfall
The high-profile transplant could provide hope for thousands of people in the United States alone who depend on donor organs. For some time now, scientists have been trying to breed organs in pigs that can be used by humans – in addition to hearts, also kidneys or lungs. With the medical breakthrough that has now been reported, however, many questions remain unanswered, especially those about the organ’s longevity. In addition, the findings have not yet been published in any specialist magazine.
In October it became known that doctors in New York had connected a pig kidney to a brain-dead person for more than two days. The organ was connected to the bloodstream outside the body for 54 hours and started to work there “almost immediately” and to form the metabolic product creatinine. At that time, experts spoke of a “further step” in the field of xenotransplantation, i.e. the transfer of cells or organs from one species to another.
The history of the development of xenografts is long and marked by rainfall. The case of Baby Fae, who received a baboon heart in California in 1984, was particularly spectacular. It died three weeks after the operation.