The surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells in a bid to stop the human body rejecting the organ
Dr Bartley Griffith takes a selfie photo with patient David Bennett.In a medical first, doctors have transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life.
Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection. The next few weeks will be critical as he recovers from the surgery and doctors carefully monitor how his heart is faring.
"If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland university's animal-to-human transplant program. Several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant; the one used for Friday's operation came from Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics.
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