In a milestone achievement for xenotransplantation, a man with terminal heart disease received the first-ever genetically engineered heart transplant from a non-human donor.
David Bennett, 57, received the treatment from the University Of Maryland Medical Centre as a last resort after being deemed ineligible to receive a more conventional heart transplant.
This was the first case where a whole pig heart was transplanted into a human without rejection, although pig heart valves have been used for many years, and proved that with the use of genetic modification, an animal heart can function as a human heart without being rejected by the body, a common concern for transplants in general.
After the treatment, undertaken by Bartley P. Griffith, MD, the transplanted heart was not immediately rejected, and Mr Bennett has been doing well whilst being monitored to see if the treatment can help extend his life.
The impact on this case could have a major impact on life science recruitment in the field of genomics and genetic modification, as it highlights a potential solution to shortages in organ donation and a breakthrough for a field of medicine that has faced setback after setback.
Xenotransplantation has been explored for over a century, with attempts to transplant animal organs being first attempted in 1905, although the concept had been explored earlier than this.
The first problem was the concept of organ rejection and as more was understood about how the immune system inherently rejects foreign tissue, scientists stopped focusing as much on it.
This changed in 1954 when Dr Joseph Murray performed the first successful organ transplant with the help of immunosuppressive drugs to avoid rejection.
In 1963, chimpanzee kidneys were transplanted into patients, and whilst only one recipient survived longer than a few weeks, the kidneys showed no sign of rejection, creating a promising future for xenotransplantation.
This hope was crushed by two disastrous heart transplants. The first was a baboon heart transplant to Baby Fae in 1984, which extended her life by 21 days and was caused by a blood type mismatch.
The second, and more tragic case was the case of Purna Saikia, who received a pig heart transplant with no genetic modification by Dr Dhaniram Baruah and died after a week due to multiple infections.
This caused an outcry in India and led to both Dr Baurah and his assistant, Hong Kong surgeon John Ho Kei-Shing to be imprisoned for medical ethics violations and culpable homicide.
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