Pig heart transplants succeed in brain-dead recipients in US
No signs of early rejection were observed in either organ and hearts functioned normally with standard post-transplant medications and without additional mechanical support, the researchers said
WASHINGTON DC: Surgeons in the US have successfully transplanted genetically-engineered pig hearts into recently deceased humans, an advance towards a long-term goal of performing such surgeries regularly in living patients, researchers said.
The surgeries, known as xenotransplants, were performed on June 16 and July 6, at New York University (NYU) Langone's Tisch Hospital.
Nader Moazami, surgical director of heart transplantation at the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, led the investigational procedures using hearts procured from a facility hundreds of miles away and transplanted into recently deceased donors maintained on ventilator support.
The transplant surgeries were performed over several hours and heart function was monitored for three days. The first heart xenotransplant concluded on June 19, 2022, and the second on July 9, 2022.
No signs of early rejection were observed in either organ and the hearts functioned normally with standard posttransplant medications and without additional mechanical support, the researchers said.
No presence of porcine cytomegalovirus (pCMV) was detected in either case. The operating room used for the study has been taken offline to be used only for future xenotransplantation research, they said.
The hearts were procured from pigs that had 10 genetic modifications, including 4 porcine gene "knockouts" to prevent rejection and abnormal organ growth as well as six human transgenes to promote expression of proteins that regulate important biologic pathways that can be disrupted by incompatibilities between pigs and humans.
No other investigational devices or medications were used in the study. The procurement, transport, transplant surgery, and immunosuppression were aligned with current clinical standards used in heart transplantation.