Researchers revealed that two brain-dead patients received genetically modified pig hearts from surgeons at NYU Langone Health.
This is the first successful transplant of a pig’s heart into a living being. According to experts, it is a positive move for the medical industry. The scientists said that Revivicor Inc. altered pig hearts and screened them for viruses using an improved monitoring approach.
After reaching this milestone in organ transplantation, the researchers claimed they were progressing in their long-term objective of using pig parts to make up for the lack of available human organs for transplant.
The hearts showed normal heart function in the days following the operation, according to the doctors. The three-day studies in June and July showed no symptoms of rejection.
When a 57-year-old man with advanced heart disease passed away in March, it was discovered that the trials were carried out as a result of him being the first person to receive a genetically altered pig heart two months earlier at the University of Maryland.
It is still unknown why his new heart eventually failed.
The operations were directed by Nader Moazami, the surgical director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute’s heart transplant programme. According to Moazami, the institute intends to continue using the organs in clinical trials in the future.
In a statement, Moazami, said, “It brings me great excitement to tell you that the function of the heart was excellent. We did have to make some technical surgical modifications at the time of transplantation. Part of that is because the pig heart is very similar, but is not identical to the human heart. Part of that was because in the first operation that we did, the heart was slightly undersized and we had to make some modifications.”
As of right present, according to the researchers, brain dead recipients of xenotransplantation are safer than living patients.
Biopsies can be performed more frequently, making them also more informative.
“We could determine that in tremendous detail by taking biopsies, looking at it under a microscope, doing special staining, analyzing, you know, the…, from a molecular standpoint, what was happening in that organ. So the detail, the amount we could learn was tremendous,” Moazami said.
Parvathy Sukumaran 
