- 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 in a clinic in Baltimore, Maryland, the hospital announced on Monday.
- 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 immediately rejecting it,” 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.
Patients are fine
“This was a groundbreaking operation and brings us one step closer to solving the shortage of organs,” the doctor in charge Bartley Griffith was quoted as saying.
According to the statement, the patient said that it was a matter of life or death: “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 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.
At the beginning
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.
The history of the development of xenografts, i.e. the transfer of cells or organs from one species to another, is long and marked by precipitation. The case of Baby Fae, who received a baboon heart in California in 1984, was particularly spectacular. It died three weeks after the operation.