First Human Received the Heart of a Genetically Modified Pig


“He was going to either die or have this transplant,” Mr. Bennett said before the surgery, according to University of Maryland Medical Center officials. “I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark but this is my final choice.”

Dr. Griffith said he first started the experimental treatment in mid-December with a “memorable” and “pretty weird” conversation.

“I said we can’t give you a human heart; You do not deserve it. But maybe we could use it from an animal, a pig,” Dr. Griffith recalled. “It’s never been done before, but we think we can.”

“I wasn’t sure you understood me,” added Dr. Griffith “Then ‘Well, am I going to kiss?’ said.

Xenotransplantation, the process of grafting or transplanting organs or tissues from animals to humans, has a long history. Efforts to use the blood and skin of animals date back hundreds of years.

In the 1960s, chimpanzee kidneys were transplanted into some human patients, but the longest a recipient has lived was nine months. In 1983, a baby known as Baby Fae was transplanted with a baboon heart, but died 20 days later.

Pigs offer advantages over primates for organ harvesting as they are easier to reach and grow to adult human size at six months. Pig heart valves are routinely transplanted into humans, and some patients with diabetes are given pig pancreatic cells. Pigskin has also been used as a temporary graft for burn patients.

Two new technologies – gene editing and cloning – have made genetically modified pig organs less likely to be rejected by humans. Pig hearts, Dr. D., professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who co-founded the cardiac xenotransplantation program with Griffith and is its scientific director. It was successfully transplanted into baboons by Muhammad Mohiuddin. But safety concerns and fears of generating a dangerous immune response that could be life-threatening prevented their use in humans until recently.



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