Jonathan Wilhoite Blog: Breakthrough: Monkey Survives With A Pig’s Heart

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Breakthrough: Monkey Survives With A Pig’s Heart

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South Korea’s National Institute of Animal Science announced that a macaque lived for 51 days with a pig’s heart. This means that it broke the country’s past record of 43 days. Another important fact: this monkey did not take any immunosuppressant drugs. This is quite baffling because it is normally needed in order to stop the recipient’s immune system from attacking the donor organs.

Pig hearts are similar to humans. These are often viewed by scientists as a good alternative for heart transplants. The thing is, xenotransplantation is quite a tricky subject. The transfer of organs between different species of animals is challenging because each organism’s immune system is built to eliminate alien material.

A Monkey Has Survived For A Record Period Of Time With A Pig’s Heart

It is therefore necessary to genetically alter organs before inserting them into recipients’ bodies, in order to enable them to resist this immune response. Read more…

Independent UK reports that the possibility of humans using hearts from other animals seem to be a bit closer for the South Korean scientists. The researchers say that the heart was modified to lower the risk of the monkey’s immune system from destroying the organ.

The macaque lasted for 51 days after the procedure. The monkey was also given a cornea from the pig’s eye. The pig was genetically engineered in 2010 to generate excess amounts of membrane protein that greatly reduces organ rejection.

Transplanted Pig’s Heart Survives In Monkey For At Least 51 Days In New Record

Currently transplant patients have to take immune-suppressing drugs to stop their natural defence mechanisms from attacking the foreign body. Read more…

Telegiz informs us that this successful heart transplant from a pig to a monkey gives hope for animal-to-human organ transplantation. Oh Sung-jong, the head of the institute, implies that xenotransplantation can have a great effect globally.

Moreover, they intend to work with a company to facilitate the transplantation of pancreatic islets from pigs to monkeys with the hopes of finding a possible treatment for human diabetes patients.

Pig to Monkey Heart Transplant Breaks Record

A similar experiment was done on a baboon in which a pig’s heart was able to survive for a long period of more than two years in the baboon’s abdomen. Although the baboon had its own heart in the place beating normally, the success of keeping alive a xenotransplanted heart was an unprecedented one. Read more…

If it will indeed present more successful experiments in the future, animal to human transplantation will most likely have the greatest potential in advancing the development of treatments.

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