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Man who received first pig heart transplant dies

Man received pig heart; David Bennett died two months after his operation as his condition "began to deteriorate several days ago".

By Ground report 09 Mar 2022

New Update

Man who received first pig heart transplant dies

Ground Report | New Delhi: Man received pig heart; David Bennett died two months after his operation as his condition "began to deteriorate several days ago". The first patient in the world to have received a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig has died two months after his operation, the hospital where he was treated announced on Wednesday, March 9.

David Bennett, 57, died on Tuesday after his condition "began to deteriorate several days ago," the University of Maryland Hospital said in a statement. " When it became clear that he would not recover, he was given palliative care," he said.

Despite the death of David Bennett, researchers consider the experiment a success. "We have obtained valuable information, and learned that a genetically modified pig's heart can function properly inside a human body," said Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the hospital's xenotransplantation program. "We remain optimistic and plan to continue our work in future clinical trials." The pig from which the transplanted heart came had been genetically modified in order to avoid an immediate rejection, which indeed did not take place.

The operation, carried out on January 7, had raised great hopes, because such xenografts, from an animal to a human, could potentially make it possible to remedy the shortage of organ donations. Nearly 110,000 Americans are currently on the waiting list for organ transplants and more than 6,000 people who need transplants die each year in the country.

These xenografts are not new. Physicians have attempted cross-species transplants since at least the 17th century, with early experiments focusing on primates.

Pig heart valves are already widely used in humans, and their skin can be used for grafts in burn victims. Pigs are ideal organ donors due to their size, rapid growth, and litters, which include many young. Furthermore, the use of porcine organs is more accepted because pigs are already used for food.

"The heart of the pig has a morphology quite close to ours and it is the animal which has the greatest genetic proximity to humans", explained in the Parisian Benoit Averland, the assistant to the director of sampling and grafting. at the Biomedicine Agency.

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