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Pig heart successfully transplanted into humans for the first time: "Groundbreaking operation"

2022-01-11T10:05:20.145Z


Pig heart successfully transplanted into humans for the first time: "Groundbreaking operation" Created: 01/11/2022, 10:54 AM A US transplant team inserted a genetically modified pig heart into a human for the first time. The organ was transplanted to a 57-year-old man with terminal heart disease. Baltimore - David Bennet, 57, had no chance of a human donor heart. According to the University of


Pig heart successfully transplanted into humans for the first time: "Groundbreaking operation"

Created: 01/11/2022, 10:54 AM

A US transplant team inserted a genetically modified pig heart into a human for the first time.

The organ was transplanted to a 57-year-old man with terminal heart disease.

Baltimore - David Bennet, 57, had no chance of a human donor heart.

According to the University of Maryland doctors, the patient suffered from life-threatening end-stage heart disease.

The transplant of the pig heart was the "only" treatment option.

The man was not approved for a conventional organ transplant.

"I had the choice of either dying or having this transplant," said patient David Bennett, according to a university statement prior to the operation.

"I want to live.

I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice. ”The US Food and Drug Administration had granted emergency approval for the procedure.

Bennett was on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine (ECMO) to stay alive.

Medical sensation: pig heart successfully transplanted into humans for the first time

Three days after the transplant, the 57-year-old is fine, the University of Maryland Medical School said on Monday (January 10).

According to the US media, the operation lasted eight hours and the transplanted heart has since started its work.

The patient will be observed more closely in the coming weeks.

A pig's heart beats in his chest!

Patient David Bennett is fine three days after surgery.

© Bartley Griffith / Bartley Griffith / University of Maryland Medical Center / AP / dpa

First Pig Heart Transplant: Hope for People Waiting for a Donor Organ?

"It was a groundbreaking operation that brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis," said Bartley Griffith, surgeon who implanted the pig heart.

“We want to proceed cautiously.

But we are also optimistic that this world's first operation will give patients an important new option in the future. "

To prevent the patient from rejecting the organ after the transplant, doctors took the heart of a pig that had been genetically modified.

A total of four pig genes have been eliminated and six human genes have been inserted into the pig's genome in order to prevent the heart from being rejected by Bennett's body.

Pig heart valves have been used successfully to replace valves in humans for many years.

"This organ transplant showed for the first time that the heart of a genetically modified animal can function like a human heart without immediate rejection by the body," said the University of Maryland Medical Center. 

A transplant team in the USA claims to have connected a genetically modified pig heart to a human patient for the first time.

© Tom Jemski / University of Maryland School of Medicine / dpa

Pig Heart Transplant: An Important Step in Xenotransplantation

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 of the body for 54 hours and started working there “almost immediately” and forming the metabolic product creatinine. At that time, experts spoke of a “further step” in the field of xenotransplantation, ie 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 fall of Baby Fae hit the headlines in the 1980s.

The baby, named Stephanie Fae Beauclair, was born with fatal heart disease and was given a baboon heart in California in 1984.

The infant died three weeks after the transplant.

The immune system had rejected the alien heart.

In the USA alone, around 110,000 people are currently waiting for a donor organ.

According to official figures, more than 6,000 people die each year before a transplant can be performed.

(afp / dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-11

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