Hearts from genetically modified pigs have been successfully transplanted into human patients in the United States (US). This success is recorded as the first time in the world. The University of Maryland School of Medicine in the US announced the news on Monday local time following surgery on Friday last week. This shows for the first time that animal hearts can survive in humans without immediate rejection. This is a statement from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The 57-year-old patient, David Bennett, has terminal heart disease and a transplant is the only option currently available to him as he is deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant. The faculty said Bennett would be monitored carefully over the next few days and weeks to determine if the transplant provided any life-saving benefit.
“It's either dead or doing the transplant. I want to live. I know this is a shot in the dark but this is my last resort," Bennett said the day before the operation. He has been hospitalized and bedridden for the past few months.
"I hope to get out of bed once I recover," he said.
The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for operations on New Year's Eve through the provision of expanded access.
"This is a groundbreaking surgery and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis," said Dr Bartley P Griffith, who performed the surgery.
"We proceed with caution, but we are also optimistic that this world's first surgery will provide important new options for patients in the future."
Dr Griffith, a distinguished professor in transplant surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), founded the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program with one of the world's leading experts in animal organ transplantation Dr Muhammad M Mohiuddin.
"This is the culmination of years of very complex research to hone this technique in animals with a survival time of more than nine months," said Dr Mohiuddin.
He said a successful procedure would provide valuable information to help improve xenotransplantation, i.e. transplantation of animal organs. On the morning of the transplant, the surgical team removed the pig's heart and placed it in the XVIVO Heart Box which kept the heart awake until the operation. The heart was provided by Revvicor, a Blacksburg-based regenerative medicine company. Doctors and scientists are also using a new drug made by Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, along with conventional anti-rejection drugs, to suppress the immune system and prevent the body from rejecting foreign organs.
About 110,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting one. This data is according to the federal government's organdonor.gov site. This procedure has the potential to save thousands of lives but carries a unique set of risks, including the possibility of triggering a potentially lethal immune response. Xenotransplantation was first attempted in the 1980s, but was largely abandoned after Stephanie Fae Beauclair (known as Baby Fae), who received a baboon heart transplant at California's Loma Linda University, died within one month of the procedure due to immune system rejection of the foreign heart. However, over the years, pig heart valves have been used successfully to replace valves in humans.
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