We’re learning more about a medical breakthrough and the first pig heart transplanted into a human.
Research in the 1990s showed it could be done, but there was rapid rejection. Pig genetic make-up is similar to humans, but there’s not enough to keep the patient’s body from rejecting the organ. Researchers have now made the pig more like humans, and that took the work of USDA scientists.
“They had to take those organs from the pig and try them in non-human primates, such as a baboon. And they’ve been able to show that the baboon can live from six months to eighteen months with tissues or organs from pigs that have been gene-edited.”
USDA scientist, Dr. Joan Lunney says the likelihood the man living a long time is hopefully good, but they’ll have to adjust the drugs he’s taking that allows transplantation from one species to another.
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