Researchers have been shattering organ survival records in xenotransplantation, or between-species organ transplants. The researchers have kept a pig heart alive in a baboon for 945 days and reported the longest-ever kidney swap between these species, lasting 136 days. The experiments used organs from pigs “humanized” with the addition of as many as five human genes, a strategy designed to stop organ rejection.
The GM pigs are being produced by Revivicor, a division of United Therapeutics. That company’s founder and co-CEO, Martine Rothblatt, says her goal is to create “an unlimited supply of transplantable organs” and to carry out the first successful pig-to-human lung transplant within a few years. One of her daughters has a usually fatal lung condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Thousands of people die each year while waiting on transplant lists. Donated human organs are scarce, and many that become available don’t end up helping anyone. That is because a heart or kidney lasts only a matters of hours packed in ice, so organs can’t reach any but the closest patients.
But animal organ transplants set off a ferocious immune response. Even immunosuppressant drugs can’t entirely stop it. In order to beat the rejection problem, researchers began trying to genetically modify the animals.
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“We are adding the human genes to the pig so you have the organ repressing the immune response, rather than have to give a whopping dose of immune suppressants,” says David Ayares, a cofounder of Revivicor. By next year, some of the pigs will have as many as eight added human genes. These genetic changes make their organs more compatible with a human body, but the animals still look and act like normal pigs.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Surgeons Smash Records with Pig-to-Primate Organ Transplants
