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Pork hearts could be available for human transplants in the next three years. This is not a far-fetched prophecy or a randomly chosen number, but the prediction of Sir Terence English – the 87-year-old surgeon who performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK in 1979.
In a speech to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr. English said his protégé, Christopher McGregor, who had attended the first heart transplant, planned to conduct the first pig kidney transplant. to the man later in the year. If all goes well, it could just pave the way for similar operations involving more complex bodies.
"If the result of xenotransplantation is satisfactory with porcine kidneys in humans, it is likely that hearts will be used with good effects in humans within a few years," said English in The Telegraph.
"If it works with a kidney, it will work with a heart, it will change the problem."
Xenotransplantation is the process of transplanting an organ of one species into the body of another. McGregor has developed a technique for modifying the genes of pigs to prevent retaliation of the immune system. According to the English, this could provide an answer to the long waiting lists for transplants in the UK (and the US).
According to The Telegraph, there are about 280 people in the UK on the waiting list for a heart transplant. Meanwhile, in the United States, more than 110,000 people are waiting for a life-saving transplant – and in 2017, an average of 18 patients died each day. during this wait.
Compared to a kidney, for example, heart transplants are extremely difficult to obtain. First, they must be in good health. Second, they must be removed and transplanted in a few hours. And third, they must be compatible (biologically and in size) for the patient.
Pork hearts could be an appropriate alternative because they are anatomically similar to those of humans. This is why they are so often used in medical trials. Take, for example, a study on the possibility of using stem cell transplants to heal damaged tissue. And while pig-on-demand grafts are still in the realm of fiction, scientists have made progress in the field of pig organ transplantation in primates. Last year, a baboon survived more than six months after receiving a genetically modified pig implant to prevent an attack of the immune system.
He was then euthanized, so we do not know what would have happened to him in the months that followed. It is also interesting to note that the four other baboons undergo an operation that does not survive after six months.
In the same spirit, scientists are also exploring the new world of chimeras, namely an organism or a fused tissue of DNA from two or more species. This includes human chimeras that may one day be used for the growth of organs intended for transplantation (although, for the moment, they have not yet passed the stage of development. embryo) and, according to some reports, the human-monkey chimeras.
The use of pork organs and chimeras will undoubtedly raise a number of ethical issues, but they could also offer a solution to the great dilemma (and development) of cardiovascular disease. As for the English prediction, time will tell if this is happening.
[H/T: The Sunday Telegraph]
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