For the first time, two baboons have survived more than six months after a pig heart transplant. A scientific performance which, despite the ethical question it raises, suggests potential trials in humans.
Two baboons survived more than six months after receiving a pig heart transplant, a record in the field of xenotransplantations (transplant between two different biological species) since this performance had never exceeded 57 days before. The Swiss, German and Swedish researchers behind this scientific breakthrough presented their work in the journal Nature.
A record xenotransplantation
It all started in Munich (Germany) in 2015: 14 baboons were divided into three groups in order to be able to test several methods. So that the recipients’ humanitarian defenses do not see the graft as an intruder and reject it, the researchers first genetically modified it. Result: the primates of the first two groups did not survive the transplant, while the five of the third group were still alive three months later. Three of them were euthanized as provided for the official duration of the study and two were still kept alive by the researchers. One lived 195 days, the other 182 days, before being euthanized in turn.
“These are surprising results, which go much further than most recent work”, comments Christoph Huber, head physician of the cardiovascular surgery department of the University Hospitals of Geneva. This scientific performance suggests the possibility of conducting similar trials in humans, at a time when organ donations do not sufficiently meet the needs of patients.
France still in shortage of organ donations
In France, 23,828 people needed a transplant in 2017, a figure that is still increasing since there were 22,617 in 2016. According to the Federation of Associations for the Donation of Organs and Human Tissues, “after the kidney (3,782 transplants), the most transplanted organs were the liver (1,374, up), the heart (467, stable), the lungs (378, up) and the pancreas (96, up )”. However, “the percentage of ‘refusal of sampling’ remains at too high a level, but has nevertheless fallen by 2.5 points, to 30.5%. There are still large differences depending on the region”.
The first transplant of an animal organ in humans took place in 1964 in the United States. At the time, the patient died an hour after the transplant. Since then, researchers have continued their efforts timidly, mainly between primates and pigs.
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