FLICKR, TITANIUM22Scientists have made an important stride toward pig-to-human xenotransplants: a heart from a genetically modified pig implanted in a baboon has survived for more than 2.5 years, thanks to a cocktail of anti-rejection drugs, researchers at the US National Institutes of Health reported yesterday (April 5) in Nature Communications. The researchers previously reported a survival record of 500 days for such a transplant.
“Xenotransplants—organ transplants between different species—could potentially save thousands of lives each year that are lost due to a shortage of human organs for transplantation,” study coauthor Muhammad Mohiuddin, a transplant surgeon at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, told the Agence France-Presse.
Previous efforts failed because the recipient’s immune system rejected the organs. To overcome this, Mohiuddin and colleagues used organs from knockout pigs that lacked the galactosyltransferase gene. This gene produces the human proteins CD46 and thrombomodulin, which prevent immune rejection and blood clotting, respectively.
The researchers transplanted the pig hearts into the abdomens of five baboons, and then treated the animals with a cocktail of anti-rejection drugs and antibodies, The Washington Post reported. The addtional, donor hearts survived for a median of ...
