Modified Pig Hearts Thrive In Test Baboons For Over A Year
- 10 years ago
Doctors have successfully gotten genetically modified pig hearts to thrive in test baboons for over a year.
Doctors have successfully gotten genetically modified pig hearts to thrive in test baboons for over a year.
The results are unprecedented and offer hope for the future of animal to human organ transplants, but researchers are reluctant to say when it will become a reality.
Their recent success came as a result of using human genetic material in the breeding of piglets with the goal of making their hearts compatible with primates.
Varying degrees of modification were made to inhibit the development of enzymes associated with rejection.
As testing acceptance rather than function was the goal of the experiment, the hearts were implanted into the baboons’ abdomens.
The group that exhibited the most favorable results had received organs containing a specific human gene associated with clot prevention.
Survival spans of some specimens had reached 500 days by the time the study’s results were officially reported.
Other hearts didn’t fare as well, lasting as little as three weeks.
The next phase in the research is to see if the organs can not only survive in a host body but be used to actually support life.
Doctors have successfully gotten genetically modified pig hearts to thrive in test baboons for over a year.
The results are unprecedented and offer hope for the future of animal to human organ transplants, but researchers are reluctant to say when it will become a reality.
Their recent success came as a result of using human genetic material in the breeding of piglets with the goal of making their hearts compatible with primates.
Varying degrees of modification were made to inhibit the development of enzymes associated with rejection.
As testing acceptance rather than function was the goal of the experiment, the hearts were implanted into the baboons’ abdomens.
The group that exhibited the most favorable results had received organs containing a specific human gene associated with clot prevention.
Survival spans of some specimens had reached 500 days by the time the study’s results were officially reported.
Other hearts didn’t fare as well, lasting as little as three weeks.
The next phase in the research is to see if the organs can not only survive in a host body but be used to actually support life.