Last fall, surgeons from Langone University in New York (United States) announced that they had transplanted, for the first time in the world, a pig kidney into a human patient. This time, one more step has just been taken towards the generalization of xenotransplantations (that is to say, the transplantation of organs from an animal species into humans). The surgeons from the University of Maryland Medical Center have just transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a 57-year-old man suffering from serious heart disease and who had no other way out.
Dealing with organ shortage
For this last chance surgery, the doctors used a heart that had been genetically modified in order to eliminate a protein present in its cells and which usually causes rejection of the graft. The patient, who was transplanted on Friday January 7, does not yet show signs that her body is rejecting the new organ. Doctors will now carefully monitor the progress of the transplant, the prognosis of which remains uncertain.
This transplant is an experimental treatment but “it is a watershed event”, said Dr. David Klassen, chief medical officer of the United Network for Organ Sharing in the United States, a specialist in transplants. “A door is opening which I believe will lead to major changes in the way we treat organ failure.”
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