We know the organ transplant industry isn't in great shape these days.
But I didn't realize it was THIS rough.
Via Nature:
A lung from a genetically modified pig has been transplanted into a person for the first time. The recipient, a 39-year-old man in China, was brain dead, but the organ survived for nine days.
"Nine days?"
Actually, for experimental transplants, that's not unexpected. The world's first human heart transplant patient only survived 18 days, which was considered a marginal success.
"At least half a dozen people in the United States and China," meanwhile, have already received different pig organs, including kidneys and livers. So scientists are aware that it's at least in theory possible. But "the latest procedure suggests that almost any pig organ could be transplanted into people."
Still, lung transfers are among the most difficult, insofar as they "have the most blood vessels of any transplantable organ" and thus "are more prone to attack from the immune system."
This pig lung transplant showed promising results early on, though the team said it quickly began to fail:
24 hours after the transplant, they noticed the lung was swelling, and that the tissue was also damaged from going without oxygen for a period of time during the transplant procedure. They also observed damage caused by antibodies attacking the organ on day three and six ...
The family of the transplant recipient stopped the study before it could continue further.
Such operations, if they are eventually successful, "could be used for people with end-stage lung disease, who have no other treatment options" and who would die waiting for a viable human match.
Not sure how I feel about this. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
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