In a historic decision, the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has approved the first clinical trial of its kind, testing whether pig organs can be safely implanted into humans. Six patients will be receiving kidneys from genetically modified pigs. The research community is watching with great anticipation as the procedure holds the promise to supply organs to the thousands of patients eagerly waiting for a donor organ.
From dream to science: humans with animal organs
It may come as a surprise, but pig tissues are already routinely implanted in humans across the globe. Every year, some 60,000 patients in the US benefit from pig tissue transplants in the form of heart valves. These valves were first tested in rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs and rats, can last for about 15 years and are much preferred to mechanical ones.
Researchers are looking forward to the day when whole-organ animal-to-human transplants become just as common, alleviating the severe shortages in transplant organs that affect hundreds of thousands of people today. Currently, less than 10% of the global organ transplantation need is met, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite over 60 years of progress since the first organ transplant, insufficient organ preservation capabilities still place tight constraints on the availability of transplantable organs. The ability to replace organs and tissues on demand could save or improve millions of lives each year globally and create public health benefits on a par with curing cancer.
Using animal organs could be the answer surgeons are looking for. Xenotransplantations – animal-to-human transplants – have long been a dream of transplant surgeons. But moving from inert, denatured animal tissue to whole living organ transplants comes with different challenges altogether. It is far from the same procedure. Scientists have been working on this challenge since the 1960s, when surgeons first tried to fit humans with baboon and chimpanzee organs. Primate organs were subsequently replaced by those of pigs, which were deemed a better candidate animal.
Credit: Mia Rozenbaum and Understanding Animal Research
Image Credit: Image: Melissa Mattola-Kiatos, RN, Nursing Practice Specialist, removes the pig kidney from its box to prepare for transplantation © MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL