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January 10, 2022
In a groundbreaking operation that offers hope to people waiting for an organ transplant, the heart of a genetically modified pig was transplanted to a 57-year-old man who had end-stage heart disease.
Patient David Bennett Sr. received his heart on Friday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. In a press release, the school called the procedure “historic” and “the first transplant of its kind.”
The operation was performed after the FDA gave an emergency permit for the transplant by providing extended access (compassionate use), the Medical Center said. Bennett was deemed inadmissible for human heart transplantation due to his poor health, leaving pig transplantation the only option.
“Either die or have this transplant. I want to live. “I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said the day before the operation, according to the report. “I look forward to getting out of bed once I recover.”
“It was a revolutionary operation and it brings us one step closer to resolving the organ shortage crisis. There are simply not enough human donor hearts to meet the long list of potential recipients, ”said Bartley P. Griffith, a medical doctor who transplants a pig’s heart.
“We are acting cautiously, but we are also optimistic that this first operation in the world will provide an important new option for patients in the future.
The Joint Organ Sharing Network says more than 106,000 people have been on waiting lists for organ transplants since Monday. About 40,000 people received organ transplants last year, about 3,800 of them heart. But organ shortages kill 17 people every day, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Scientists hope that xenotransplantation – the implantation of an organ from one species to another – will reduce organ shortages and prolong the lives of people on waiting lists. Last October, a kidney raised in a genetically modified pig was transplanted to a man with brain death at NYU Langone Health in New York.
The pig for heart transplantation was raised for just such a procedure by Revivicor, a regenerative medicine company based in Blacksburg, Virginia.
The New York Times rreported that the pig has 10 genetic modifications to make the heart acceptable to humans. Some of the modifications are designed to protect the heart from growth after transplantation and make the organ more tolerant to the human immune system, The times said.
Last Friday, the surgical team removed the pig’s heart and placed it in a machine that kept it until surgery. The team also used a new drug manufactured by Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals to protect the human body from rejecting the pig’s heart, the medical school said.
Bennett was closely monitored at the hospital. He is still connected to the heart-lung bypass machine that kept him alive before the transplant, but the new heart is functioning, The times said. Doctors said he should be removed from the bypass machine on Tuesday.
“This is a groundbreaking event,” said David Klassen, Ph.D., chief medical officer of the United Organ Sharing Network. The times. “The doors are starting to open, which I think will lead to big changes in the way we treat organ failure.
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