Animals can donate organs to humans
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Donor organs of animals must solve the acute problem of donor organ deficiency for people. The aim of the new research project of Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin was to test the theory of biocompatibility.
The research team transplanted the hearts of genetically modified pigs to baboons, who were additionally given immunosuppressive drugs to avoid organ rejection. The pork heart was introduced into the peritoneum of the animal, while not completely replacing the heart of the baboon, but was attached to the vascular system of the animal.
The heart of a pig in the body of a monkey functioned almost a year and a half, which allows scientists to hope for success from carrying out operations on organ transplantation. As experts believe, this technology will allow replacing donor agencies for animals or get some time for a person who needs an urgent transplant.
Today, in the United States alone, more than 100,000 patients are waiting for an operation to transplant donor organs, which is much higher than the number of donors. The new technology of Dr. Mohiuddin will give hope for a normal life to thousands of people.
Transplantation of animal organs is called xenotransplantation, where the rejection of the immune system by an alien organ was a major problem.
Dr. Mohiuddin decided to cope with the problem due to genetic changes in the donor organs of animals. For these purposes, Dr. Mohiuddin and his colleagues removed the gene responsible for the process of rejection of foreign tissues in the human body from the pig's heart (they chose pigs as donors because they resemble humans in physiology). The next step of scientists will be a full-scale transplantation of the genetically modified pig heart to baboons. The research team can not say exactly when clinical trials will be conducted in humans. The experts will be able to move on only after a successful experiment on animals.
In the future, besides the heart, experts intend to transplant and other organs from animals to humans (lungs, heart, kidneys, pancreas).
Even now, patients with a deadly heart disease had a hope for life with an artificial organ that was created on the basis of space technologies. The development of the artificial organ was carried out for 15 years and the first tests on volunteers from France were already held. Space technologies in the development of an artificial organ were taken for the reasons that they are strong, durable and have high accuracy. In the artificial heart were used biological tissues, organic materials, as well as the details used in the construction of the satellite (for the heart, small copies were taken). The new artificial heart is designed for more than 30 million closures and discoveries a year. On average, the life of an artificial organ is 5 years. As experts believe, transplantation of an artificial organ will help patients avoid a long waiting period for the donor organ (often the patient's heart stops earlier than the turn to transplantation).
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