In a first, man gets genetically-altered pig heart in transplant   

Annapolis: In a watershed event, the surgeons in Maryland used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene editing to remove a chemical in its cells that's responsible for the organ rejection.   

The rare surgery, scientifically known as ‘Xenotransplantation’, has previously not worked because of patients' bodies rejecting the animal organ. 

Nevertheless, doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Centre said the transplant showed that a genetically-modified heart from an animal can be used in human body without being immediately rejected.  

The 57-year-old terminally ill man has been given the chance of life after his own diseased heart was replaced by a genetically-modified pig's heart.  

The patient, David Bennett said on Monday that he is doing well three days after the experimental surgery. 

However, it is too early to know if the operation will work but marks a step in the decades-long search by scientists to use animal organs for life-saving transplants. 

'Do or die’ surgery

In a statement on the day before the surgery the patient said, "It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice".

His son David Bennett Jr said, "He could not live, or he could last a day, or he could last a couple of days. I mean, we're in the unknown at this point".

Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin, a scientific director for the university's animal-to-human transplant programme, said, "If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering".

The UNOS's Chief Medical Officer, Dr David Klassen, described the transplant as a "watershed event", but warned that it is only a first, tentative step into exploring the animal-to-human organ transplants. 

With a shortage of human organs for transplant, animal alternatives have long been the subject of intense research.

In 2021, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the United States (US), a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). 

The most notable attempt was in 1984, when Baby, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a baboon heart.

Xenotransplantation experiments are overseen by the Food and Drug Administration, which allowed the surgery under "compassionate use" emergency authorisation, which is made available when a patient has no other options.

Last year, New York scientists suggested that genetically-modified pigs might offer promise for animal-to-human transplants after they temporarily attached a pig's kidney to a dead human body and watched it work.

According to Dr Robert Montgomery, who led the New York experiment, the heart transplant is "a truly remarkable breakthrough".