Ready To Using Pig Hearts For Human Transplants

Ready To Using Pig Hearts For Human Transplants

Scientists from the United States and Germany said they had succeeded in keeping transplanted pig hearts alive in baboons, primate cousins of humans, for a record 2.5 years. Their method uses a combination of gene modification and targeted immune-suppressing drugs.In recent experiments with five baboons, the hearts survived for up to 945 days, breaking previous records held by the same group of scientist and researchers.The hearts did not replace those of the monkeys, but were connected to the circulatory system via two large blood vessels in the baboon abdomen.Pigs have since emerged as better donors. Their hearts are anatomically similar to ours, they pose less of a disease transmission risk, they grow up fast and are already widely farmed. In these xenotransplant trials, baboons serve as human models.

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