World first: transplant surgeons place pig heart on patient | Abroad

The 57-year-old American David Bennett from Maryland, who has a life-threatening heart condition, went under the knife on Friday. He got the heart of a genetically modified pig whose genes had been altered to no longer contain the molecule that leads to direct rejection in the human body. According to The New York Times, it is the first time a pig heart has been used for a heart transplant. The man risked the operation, because he had died without a new heart anyway.

“We are overjoyed. Right now everything is going well, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. A pig heart transplant has never been done before,” said Bartley Griffith, the surgeon who led the operation. The “groundbreaking surgery” – as Griffith calls the transplant – gives hope to patients on the waiting list for a heart transplant.

Still, Griffith wants to emphasize that caution is still needed. Bennett is currently on a machine that also kept him alive before surgery. If everything continues to go well, the machine can be switched off within a few days. Doctors also constantly check for infections, such as retroviruses (porcine endogenous retroviruses, abbreviated PERVs). Although the chance is very small, these viruses can still be transmitted from pigs to humans. Retroviruses can cause, among other things, blood cancer, leukemia. An unleashed retrovirus can therefore have catastrophic consequences.

It is not the first time that an organ from a pig has been placed on a human being. Last October, a brain-dead patient with kidney failure was given a pig kidney. The kidney functioned normally for just over two days and was not rejected by the woman’s body. Several patients with diabetes also received pancreatic cells from pigs. In addition, pig skin is used in burn patients as a temporary wound covering.

Last year, about 41,354 Americans received a new organ. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit organization that coordinates transplants in the US, more than half of the cases involved kidney transplants. Last year, 3,817 Americans received new hearts in the US. That’s the highest number ever, but demand is still higher. The organization says there is a shortage of suitable organs, causing people to die every day.

Transplant surgeons expect that pigs may be the solution to the great shortage of suitable organs in the future. Pigs are of interest to scientists because pig organs are similar in size to humans, and the animals often give birth to many piglets after a short gestation period. In addition, pigs are animals that mature quickly.

Not only pig organs, but also ape organs are used by transplant surgeons. That already happened in the 1960s. Monkeys are more suitable for growing organs, because the monkey is closer to humans than the pig in terms of properties. Nevertheless, according to experts, pigs are more accepted as organ donors, because humans also frequently use the animal for consumption.

Animal rights organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have been very critical of animal organ transplants. “From an ethical perspective, PETA has always opposed the use of live animals as a repository for human spare parts. Animals are not spare parts,” PETA said.