Health Times reporter Kong Tianjiao
According to CNN, the University of Maryland School of Medicine said at a press conference on the 10th local time that a 57-year-old Maryland man was in good condition after 3 days of transgenic pig heart transplant surgery. It is reported that this is the first time that humans have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a patient.
What is the first case in the world that a heart transplanted from a pig after gene editing has been transplanted into a human body? Is it appropriate to transplant a pig heart into a person? How long can I survive stably? Will there be a rejection reaction? What does this mean? Does it bring new hope for organ transplantation?
Screenshot from CNN
"There are many people waiting for heart transplantation clinically, and there are few donations, and xenotransplantation has always been a hot spot and difficult point in these years of research." This improvement, mainly the technical improvement of transgenes, gene editing technology is to remove the genes with strong rejection response in pigs, and then add human genes, the means is the latest technology, so as to avoid acute rejection. Zhang Haibo, deputy director of the Ninth Ward of the Department of Cardiac Surgery of Beijing Anzhen Hospital, told the Health Times reporter.
"In fact, xenotransplantation has been tried as early as the 1970s and 1980s, including baboon heart transplantation, but the effect is not good, because the rejection reaction that appeared was too severe, and it was tried at the time, but it failed." After entering the 000 years, we began to try genetic improvement. Zhang Haibo told the Health Times reporter.
The transplant was performed by a 57-year-old man named David Bennett who suffered from an end-stage heart attack that did not qualify for a human heart transplant and the use of heart assist devices. So receiving a xenotransplant became Bennett's only hope of survival, and according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, he said the day before the operation: "Die or do a transplant." I want to live. ”
The operation was performed on January 7 this year and took 7 hours local time. On Jan. 10, doctors said Bennett was in good condition 3 days after the surgery, suggesting that the heart of a gene-edited animal could function in the human body and did not cause an immediate rejection reaction. But it's too early to tell if the surgery will be successful, and the next few weeks will be critical, as doctors carefully monitor Bennett's heart, immune system and whether there are complications.
During the operation, pictured from CNN
Zhang Haibo said, "The reason why this transplant has attracted attention is because the genetic improvement technology used this time is the latest, that is, the pig's genes are removed, shielded, and transgenized, so that the pig's heart and the human heart rejection is very low." ”
"What's the effect? Still under observation, now only 4 days, in general, within 1-3 months after transplantation, is the strongest time for rejection, currently stable, indicating that the rejection response is at least not very obvious, if the future observation reaches long-term stability, it can be said that genetic improvement technology is more successful. Zhang Haibo explained that if genetic improvement technology is not used, ultra-acute rejection will occur within a few hours of transplantation, and patients will not be able to get off the operating table at that time.
Zhang Haibo mentioned: "There are more than 300,000 people on China's organ transplant waiting list, but only about 16,000 organs are available every year, and if further optimized, xenotransplantation can be achieved and truly achieve a long-term stable state, then it is good news for people waiting to receive a heart transplant, which will save more waiting lives." ”