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U.S. surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient
- lordentropy 5y agoThese pigs are genetically modified to remove a particular protein called Alphagal from all their cells - Reminds of of this interesting podcast in Raidiolab. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/return-alpha-gal https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/retur...
- ahwvd37js 5y agoDoes it taste like bacon?
- josephcsible 5y agoI wonder why an artificial heart wasn't an option here.
- virtue3 5y ago"The patient, David Bennett, 57, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press."
- josephcsible 5y agoYes, "had no other option" confirms that an artificial heart wasn't an option, but it doesn't say why it wasn't.
- blakesterz 5y agoOther places that are reporting on him say "He was deemed ineligible for an artificial heart pump due to uncontrollable arrhythmia."
- rzzzt 5y agoI jumped onto Wikipedia to figure out why arrhytmia might be a problem, and it looks like "artificial heart pump" might stand for a VAD (Ventricular Assist Device), as in it pumps blood and it helps, but the original organ remains in circuit.
- iancmceachern 5y agoYes, and good examples are the Heartmate 2 and 3. Both have been implanted in tens of thousands of people.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mhb 5y agoIt seems like those are not quite there yet: How to Build an Artificial Heart https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/08/how-to-build-an-artificial-heart https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/08/how-to-build-a...
- josephcsible 5y agoA bunch of people do have artificial hearts. I'm wondering what about this patient made one not suitable for him.
- bogwog 5y agoMaybe cost? Those things ain't cheap.
- iancmceachern 5y agoYes they are. The syncardia TAH, Heartmate 2 and 3, Carmet, etc.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoAll with severe limitations
- iancmceachern 5y agoNot really. Patients are able to leave the hospital, go home and resume normal life. They need to charge and maintain batteries on their person, and maintain the driveline exit site but all in all they have less limitations than say someone on dialysis.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoOf course current LVADs are better than being dead, but still significantly worse than having a healthy heart, or transplant. Heartmate III is one of the best and here are some summary outcomes[1]: 2 year survival after LVAD implant is around ~75% 2 year chance of stroke is ~10% 2 year chance of major infection is 58%, and sepsis is 15% 2 year chance of right heart failure is 34%. Quality of life post implant and depression are real concerns. Some smaller studies have shown 5 year suicide rates as high as 10% following LVAD implantation. Don't get me wrong, they are a miracle of modern science and engineering, but have limitations. There are reasons why they are not a destination therapy for people eligible to receive transplants. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ejhf.2211 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ejhf.2211
- TulliusCicero 5y agoI wonder if it's possible that a pig heart might actually be better than an artificial one? I don't know enough about the state of the art in either to even guess myself.
- Qem 5y agoI wonder, in the best case, how long a pig heart is expected to last, given pigs have shorter lifespans than humans. Wish the patient good luck.
- kingsloi 5y agoInteresting that it's a pig heart! I was introduced into "pig bladder ground up into magical pixie dust" aka ACell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACell) when it was used to treat my child's heart surgery incision. I was super surprised how well it worked and how quick, too!
- xtracto 5y agoI read about the "magical pixie dust" in a very old Time Magazine (that my dad had a subscription to). Since then, I have always dreamed of having the tip of my left thumb "regrown" using that or a similar technology. Glad to know that it is being used more commonly on nowadays.
- kingsloi 5y agoThat’s awesome! I couldn’t believe it when they first said it was made from pig bladder. We didn’t use all of it... I should’ve asked for the remainder and pit it in a takeout box and kept it for a rainy day
- melling 5y ago“The Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection.” So, we need to genetically engineer the animals
- Vrondi 5y agoWe just need to grow the organs in the lab.
- wombatmobile 5y agoIf we keep improving the whole animal, refining its physiology, appearance, personality, behaviour, judgement, presentation skills, longevity and resilience, the USA will eventually have the opportunity to elect a leader who can heal and unite a divided nation.
- peanut_worm 5y agoIf a pigs heart was beating in my chest I dont think I would ever be able to relax again
- bogwog 5y agoIt beats dying. (pun intended)
- ballenf 5y agoI'm only able to relax when I don't think about my need for a constantly beating heart -- pig or otherwise.
- peanut_worm 5y agoSame, I start to panic if I think about my heart or circulatory system for more than a few seconds
- jamiek88 5y agoThat’s why as soon as there is a reliable mechanical heart I am getting one. Massive stroke and sudden cardiac arrest are one of the few ways you can just drop dead with no warning I’d love to reduce that risk by half with a fully artificial heart. Assuming of course it’s more reliable than a regular one. Same with elective prosthetics there will come a time when bionic arms or legs infer a physical advantage. Hope I’m around to take advantage!
- notahacker 5y agoTo be fair, pigs generally seem much more relaxed animals than humans. Will happily eat pork too for that matter. I'd just find some nice mud to roll in.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoI might not be able to eat bacon again.
- basementcat 5y ago
- planetsprite 5y agoOne step closer to Porkin' Across America irl
- alexose 5y agoPossibly the most underrated web series of all time
- garren 5y agoI wonder why a pig heart rather than one from another primate? The article mentions a baboon heart in an earlier attempt at xenotransplantation with an infant. Is a pig’s heart as, or more, compatible or is it more a matter of availability?
- reaperducer 5y agoIANAD, but from what I remember back when trans-species heart transplant research started in the 80's, it was that pig heart tissue is most similar to human heart tissue. Hopefully there is a D on HN who can explain better.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dotnet00 5y agoPigs are very anatomically similar to humans but due to being a food source there were probably also fewer ethical concerns compared to using primates.
- saalweachter 5y agoIt's really quite fascinating -- they aren't particularly close to us genetically, but because they're a similar sized mammal with an omnivore diet, you can teach their macro-biology from the same textbook.
- dotnet00 5y agoYep, back in high school we had a few days devoted to dissecting and documenting the anatomy of a fetal pig. It was really surprising how similar they actually were.
- gus_massa 5y agoPeople love primates, specially big ones, and will get angry if in the future thousands of primates are used for organ harvest. Pigs? People will make jokes like "If I pay for the heart transplant, do I get a free bacon?" (Also, pigs have the correct size to get an organ usable in humans.)
- Simon_O_Rourke 5y agoThe poor guy, not only is he on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his days, but he's a new type of walking transgenic disease vector.
- lr4444lr 5y agoBeats dying in vain wait for a donor.
- Ensorceled 5y agoLucky guy isn't dead!
- gitgrump 5y agoTransplant recipients are on immunosuppressants forever anyway, so this is as inconvenient as receiving a human heart. And hey, it beats being dead!
- terramex 5y agoThe biggest surprise for me is that organ transplant from animals had been attempted in the past, I was sure it had not been done yet. Apparently there was a newborn that lived for 21 days with baboon heart in 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Fae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Fae Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenotransplantation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenotransplantation ) also lists one successful kidney transplant from chimpanzee in 1964: > Out of 13 such transplants performed by Keith Reemtsma, one kidney recipient lived for 9 months, returning to work as a schoolteacher. At autopsy, the chimpanzee kidneys appeared normal and showed no signs of acute or chronic rejection.
- iancmceachern 5y agoYeah, but those early attempts were not performed with genetically engineered donor animals. Doomed to failure from the start.
- tricky 5y agoYou might be asking, why a pig? I don't know, but forever ago I wrote software for a cardiovascular imaging lab and pigs were their primary test subjects. I was like, "why pigs?" and the PI was like, "Imaging-wise, pig hearts aren't too different from humans. Plus, we can give them a heart attack in the scanner and not go to jail. Some labs use dogs. I just can't do that."
- Blikkentrekker 5y agoI was only recently acquainted with the idea that there are many people on the internet who become very angry that some people eat dog meat, but do not with say cow meat or pig meat. — I find this rather strange and do not understand this.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoIt's typically a North American - or sometimes Western European problem. As people become more lonely, they rely more on their companion pets. But ignore the obvious contradiction that they eat pigs, chickens or cows each day. I'm not sure anyone else really worries about it from what I've seen, having traveled around.
- micromacrofoot 5y agoit’s just a lifetime of conditioning really
- Blikkentrekker 5y agoI also remember reading about a criminal defence attorney who did not handle cases involving sex crimes. Apparently he was fine with defending murder suspects, but not suspects charged with even street groping. Or Gerard Spong's statement of being willing to defend anyone charged with anything, except Dési Bouterse; there are certainly worse military dictators on the planet.
- micromacrofoot 5y ago
- samwillis 5y agoWhen I was a teenager there was a novel adapted for TV by the BBC called “Pig Heart Boy”. It explored the emotional impact of this type of procedure on a teenager and the response from the public, both good and bad. I don’t remember much about it but it looks like it won a BAFTA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Heart_Boy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Heart_Boy
- belter 5y ago"Pig Heart Boy (1999)" https://youtu.be/JoBW_XCWDDA https://youtu.be/JoBW_XCWDDA
- joshuaissac 5y agoThe novel was also on the reading list for English at many secondary schools in the mid 2000s.
- Milner08 5y agoYeah when I read the title of this article my first thought was 'isnt that a thing, why is it news'. Then I realised that its not very common and I was just thinking of the book/TV show!
- sinuhe69 5y agoSo it’s a real thing then! And I just thought “what would people say if they know the guy has a pig heart?” “A pig heart guy” rings truly bad
- geocrasher 5y agoPiglet is Public Domain for a WEEK and they're already harvesting his organs.
- kiba 5y agoWe're getting good at building artificial nonorganic heart, still a bit away from growing conventional hearts. I wonder how these future options intersect, whether one will win out over another, or we will be having hybrids? Electromagnetic motors work fine, but a big issue with them is the method of powering them and maybe biocompatibility issue. Normal organic hearts don't have this disadvantage but their downside is that they are in its infancy?
- soco 5y agoOne word: 3D printing. Ok that was two words, but still exciting.
- jacquesm 5y agoThis has absolutely nothing to do with 3D printing.
- spiralx 5y agoThey're talking about bioprinting which is a rapidly developing field, with a lot of recent successes in "printing" liver tissue: https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/tr-biofab-pulls-off-breakthrough-3d-bioprinted-liver-tissue-transplant-192682/ https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/tr-biofab-pulls-off-brea... Being able to have a 3D printed liver is very plausible within the next decade. https://www.3dsourced.com/guides/3d-printed-liver/ https://www.3dsourced.com/guides/3d-printed-liver/
- jacquesm 5y agoLiver is a fairly special case in that it is a sludge in a bag, a bit like kidneys and other filter organs. The subject here is a heart. There is absolutely no way that we're going to be 3d printing a heart in the foreseeable future.
- 323 5y agoAn organic heart can self-repair itself, unlike the mechanical one. It's also "proven" to potentially last 100 years with no maintenance required.
- woke_neoliberal 5y agoThe pig was modified to remove presentation of immunogenic sugars on the cell surface. Unfortunately, the recipient needs to be on immunosuppressants the rest of their life. This rekindles discussions back in school about chimeras... in order for the organs to be immunocompatible, the donor needs to be partially human. What % is too human to harvest for organs? I suppose it's still too soon to answer such questions, but apparently, 0% acceptable.
- badRNG 5y agoI don't think it is all that uncommon for regular human-to-human transplant recipients to be on immunosuppressants for life. If I'm not mistaken, that's the case for all organ recipients, but there may be exceptions. I think the concept of "immunocompatibility" can refer to a spectrum of outcomes that we haven't gotten down even for transplants within our own species.
- giarc 5y agoYes all transplant patients receive immunosuppressants. The only transplant that wouldn't would be an allogenic stem cell transplants (uses the persons own stem cells), however these people typically don't have an immune system to begin with.
- dnautics 5y ago> What % is too human to harvest for organs I don't think it's really measurable, because a meaningful "%" implies a relatively context-free, relatively uniformly distributed importance to genetic sequence. The most immunogenic sugar is glycolylneuraminic acid. Humans are incapable of making this sugar so it's immediately recognizable as alien by the human immune system. You could in theory disable production of this sugar with a single base pair mutation which (if that's how you did it) would make this .000001% sequence difference extremely important over almost any other sequence point. As a side note it's a matter of speculation that the lack of this sugar is an evasion mechanism for species-jumping flu. Edit: tick thing was wrong, I had misremembered! Thank you smart reader who has since deleted their comment calling me out.
- hwbehrens 5y agoIf pigs (or any animal) broaden the compatibility to other organs, what are the ethical implications for raising them with the intention to harvest their organs, if any? On one hand, we already raise pigs to kill and eat routinely, and (mostly) people don't care - is this any different than say, buying a pig heart at the market to eat? On the other hand, it does somehow feel different to me, perhaps because sharing organs somehow humanizes the pigs by emphasizing our similarity? I'm not entirely sure from where my hesitation stems. I'm curious if anyone else read this story with mixed reactions.
- zanethomas 5y agoEat all the bacon you want, get heart disease, get new heart, eat more bacon.
- khazhoux 5y agoClassic platform lock-in strategy.
- znpy 5y agoIt's pigs all the way down
- m3at 5y agoA documentary called South Park showed just that in this episode: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Bar_(South_Park) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Bar_(South_Park) /s
- doctor_eval 5y agoSame pig supplies the heart AND the bacon.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago> On one hand, we already raise pigs to kill and eat routinely, and (mostly) people don't care - is this any different than say, buying a pig heart at the market to eat? Yes, in that it's morally superior to eating meat. Eating meat is mostly a nutritional luxury, but needing functioning organs is not. I'm a meat eater, but I imagine there are a number of vegetarians who would be okay with this sort of organ harvesting process. Of course, if we end up able to grow organs in a lab environment instead of inside an animal, that's probably better for all involved.
- SavantIdiot 5y agoThis is great news. The organ donor wait list is 6-8 years for most organs (kidneys, livers, etc.). Please be an organ donor.
- Sohcahtoa82 5y agoBeing an organ donor needs to be opt-out rather than opt-in. If it absolutely must be opt-in, then opting in should be easy. In Oregon, it's just a matter of checking a box when you get a state ID or driver's license. Also, make sure your family knows your wishes.
- hycaria 5y agoRecipients do not do so well in covid times, do they?
- pkaye 5y agoYup, I'm a kidney dialysis patient waiting 6 years on the list. In theory I'm approaching the front of the list but they still need to make sure I get good compatibility so who knows. I've know people who have waited for 8-10 years!
- SavantIdiot 5y agoI'm pulling for ya! Have you been doing at-home dialysis or at a facility?
- pkaye 5y agoI'm doing at-home PD dialysis. At-home is generally best if people can manage it.
- Ensorceled 5y agoReminder: We've been replacing human heart VALVES with pig valves for a long time now. My grandmother lived for almost a decade after her replacement. https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/learning/pig-valve-replacement/ https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/learning/pig-valve-repla...
- livinglist 5y agoMay I ask how much did it cost and did insurance cover it?
- OminousWeapons 5y agoA surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) for example will cost ~50K I believe? It will be covered by insurance if it is necessary. There are also less invasive forms of valve replacement (transcatheter / percutaneous) which involve collapsing a synthetic valve around a balloon at the end of a catheter, inserting the assembly into a femoral artery, guiding the valve into the heart and into the open damaged valve, and then inflating the balloon and deploying the new valve inside of the damaged old valve. In SAVR the old valve is removed and the new one is sewn in. In transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), the old valve is held open by the new valve.
- sokoloff 5y agoIs anyone having an aortic valve replacement that isn’t necessary?!
- MikeTheGreat 5y agoEr, no, although that was a funny way for the parent to phrase it. It might be more accurate to phrase it as "depending on your insurance, your insurance may pay for it if it's covered AND you _meet_the_criteria_ for the procedure." For example: You may run into a situation where your doctor says "You know, it would be good to replace this now" and the insurance company says "Thank you for your professional opinion; our table says that we're not replacing it until criteria X is also satisfied"
- davidhyde 5y agoIf it gets you one degree closer to Kevin it's worth it.
- oneepic 5y ago(Kevin Bacon?)
- MichaelRazum 5y agoThe pig life expectancy is about 12-18 years. Does it mean that the heart will work about so long?
- andrewflnr 5y agoOnly if the heart is the first thing that goes on a pig.
- pm90 5y agoNot necessarily. Life expectancy is affected by the most mortal part of your species: it might be that pigs’ hearts are fine, but they’re prone to cancers after a certain age.
- literallyaduck 5y agoThen could they yeet the old one into the sausage grinder and transplant a fresh one. It could even be a nice 12 year ritual, pay 1 million dollars for the most expensive sausage you'll ever eat. http://www.culinarypen.com/2014/02/pork-heart-sausage.html?m=1 http://www.culinarypen.com/2014/02/pork-heart-sausage.html?m...
- lupire 5y agoThis was an Outer Limits episode. https://theouterlimits.fandom.com/wiki/White_Light_Fever https://theouterlimits.fandom.com/wiki/White_Light_Fever
- flavius29663 5y agoIf you eat that heart, would it make you a cannibal? The heart cells are replaced every 3 years? Is that a human heart now, with a pig foundation?
- pkaye 5y agoAs a kidney dialysis patient who is 6 year in the waiting list, I know the wait times have been slowly creeping up. Any bridging solution to reduce need for dialysis or even better forms of dialysis would be welcome. Despite the anti rejection medication people tell me they feel way better when they get a functional kidney.
- dukeofdoom 5y agoSo..."human pig hybrid". How full is the tip jar for things Alex Jones was right about. If you grant him some room for hyperbole and exaggeration guy is a pretty good futurist. He brags about reading research papers all day long. Fascinating role as a court jester and modern day prophet.
- pazimzadeh 5y agoThis research has always been out in the open. My mom is one of the people who dedicated her life to it - it would be nice if it wasn't just used to scare people. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC2866107/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC2866107/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7990044/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7990044/
- LoveMortuus 5y agoFinally! I wonder how much would it cost me to have car ears transplanted!
- oversocialized 5y ago[flagged]
- trwhite 5y agoA sad sign of what things have come to when a man's last hope at survival is a pig heart.
- p_j_w 5y agoMaybe I'm missing something, but what's so sad about this situation versus the past? In the past, he would have just died, but "what things have come to" is that medical technology has advanced to the point where he has a shot of making it another few years.
- trwhite 5y agoI think perhaps the wording might have confused you (and now reading again I can see why.) I was merely expressing sadness at the situation, that the man found himself left with no other possibilities. Particularly the quote: "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." By "things have come to" I didn't mean in society, I meant in his life.
- p_j_w 5y agoI see. Yes, your wording did confuse me a bit. Thanks for clarifying.
- joeblow21 5y ago
- wizzwizz4 5y agoThis reminds me of the 1997 book Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman. (Wikipedia says there's also a 1999 BBC television adaption, available on YouTube.)
- m0llusk 5y agoActually, the idea that humans may be primate-pig hybrids is one of the more believable explanations for our extremely unusual skin which is more similar to aquatic mammals than primates.
- znpy 5y agoThank you for the nightmares
- sakex 5y agoMakes me think we might have been able to use Jeffrey Epstein's heart after all
- FundementalBrit 5y agoWill make Jews and Muslims question their faith if this becomes a mainstream thing. Personally I think this is a amazing scientific achievement and will be following the story closely.
- stickydink 5y agoQuestion in what way? There are plenty of people opting to die every year by refusing blood transfusions and transplants already.
- enjoyyourlife 5y agoThe prohibition is against eating pig, not benefiting from it
- johnisgood 5y agoYou do benefit from eating pig though. :)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Pigalowda 5y ago“Griffith had transplanted pig hearts into about 50 baboons over five years, before offering the option to Bennett.” I wonder how the baboons did.
- solveit 5y agoI imagine at least the later ones did well enough to give Griffith some confidence in his methods.
- larodi 5y agoPigs caring, saving and dying to support human lives and well being on so many levels. We should definitely worship them much more.
- gtsop 5y agoNot meaning to be dissregarding, but literally everything works like that. We use almost everything (even at the expensw of comoletely consuming it (resources) or killing it (plants/animals)) to live ourselves. And it's pretty much the way of life even without humans. Now, all these don't mean we shouldn't be appreciative, and we definitely arent enough. But we should worship? I don't think so
- larodi 5y agoWell, it is a play of words, perhaps not entirely appropriate, but point was made. Definitely not proposing to have the image of the Holy Mother replaced with one of a pig in holy places... Still, pigs are killed (is it okay to say 'give their lives'?) for food, for clothing, for medicine now, and in the future. It's not about pigs, really - but sheep also treated similarly (save for the medicine yet), while horses and chimps not so much. Dogs - as many pointed is difficult to imagine having dogs for food or waist-belts or ... heart donors. Should we wrap up things with "it's about life to kill things to live", well, it'd be a dramatic over-simplification of what life is about. And it's not as much the way of "life without humans", because (afaik) no animal is known to mass produce or mass kill and definitely not using other animals fur/skins for clothing. What we can say is that humanity is very much accustomed to this perpetual exploitation, but it is a very long discussion before it can be justified as the 'way of life'. Of course - this is my position, and not trying to impose it, just making a point really. Not trying to convince anyone to quit meat, or to not buy a nice purse. Just taking a moment to reflect.
- The_rationalist 5y agohe always had the option for an artificial heart no? but still I applaud this kind of heroic and far too rare utilitarian progress
- tombert 5y agoGenuine question: why is an artificial heart such a hard thing to make? At least from a lay-person's perspective, it's just some pumps and valves, which we've gotten pretty good at making. Obviously I'm wrong about that because there really isn't a permanent artificial heart yet, but it's something I have wondered for awhile.
- bufferoverflow 5y agoThere are artificial hearts, and people survived for years on them. The record is 7 years, I think. They aren't cheap, $100K to $300K for the first year, depending on the device. Then it's around $18K/year to maintain. I don't know why they are that expensive.
- iancmceachern 5y agoAnd LVADs too, folks have lived over a decade on those. Tens of thousands have been implanted.
- bobbylarrybobby 5y agoIn addition to soft flexible machinery being somewhat difficult to manufacture, you would also have to hook it up to the brain. Not exactly an easy feat.
- FinanceAnon 5y agoWhy would you need to hook it up to the brain? I am assuming to respond to signals, for example stressed -> beat faster? But what would happen if you didn't have this automatic response? Let's say the heartbeat could be controlled by an algorithm or an app - for example if you lie down, it slows down automatically or if you expect to do some exercise, you can turn it up.
- jensensbutton 5y agoI'm fairly certain you don't want your heart controlled by an app on your phone.
- mikesabbagh 5y agofor some reason, i think of the gods that are half human, half animals. They lived forever!! If you can transplant a heart, then new kidneys and pancreas ... we will become sphynxes. Cant wait to see where this will take us in 20 years
- truthwhisperer 5y ago
- didip 5y agoCan I live forever by transplanting various pig organs to my failing organs?
- iancmceachern 5y agoYes, and I want to join you.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- userbinator 5y agoPig of Theseus
- somethoughts 5y agoDoes this create any potential for disease/virus vectors across species if not handled properly?
- iancmceachern 5y agoYes, they mention one in the article.
- akomtu 5y agoNot meaning to diminish the accomplishment, but does it mean that the patient is now forever in debt to the hospital?
- martin1975 5y agoWow, that's intense! Does anyone know if pig's blood typing matches ours and if not how do they overcome that? Would be curious to see what kind of lifetime they get from this transplant. Amazing.
- iancmceachern 5y agoThis is a big deal. Decades of hard, difficult work has gone into this milestone and it will no doubt prove to be a watershed moment in medicine.
- sudoaza 5y agoWas it a cop?
- thehappypm 5y agoBoo
- Bud 5y ago
- dang 5y agoHow many times do we have to ask you to stop breaking the site guidelines? You're still doing it on a regular basis. I don't want to ban you but at some point what choice do we have? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mastazi 5y agoIs this really "a medical first" as the article states? I would have sworn that I heard about pig hearts being transplanted into humans at least a decade ago... Anyone from the medical field can give some background? Or am I imagining things? :-)
- adamgrim 5y agoFrom another article: “ In September, Montgomery moved the work forward by becoming the first to transplant a pig kidney into a person, but in that case, and a subsequent surgery in December, the person had been declared brain dead. Montgomery kept the body functioning via machine for more than two days each time, showing that the human immune system would not immediately reject a kidney from a gene-edited pig.”
- mastazi 5y agooh, I see, so I guess it's correct to say that this is the first "real" transplant and previous attempts were experiments. Also, apparently, transplants of heart valves from pigs have been around for a while, see this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29883619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29883619
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoI wonder if it is kosher.
- ilvez 5y agoNot on topic comment, reminded me this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_a_Dog https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_a_Dog
- launchiterate 5y agoThank you to all the sentient animals who have given their life.
- grishka 5y agoI'm surprised no one here is talking about Michael Levin's morphogenesis research. It's absolutely fascinating and might someday obviate the need for transplants and prosthesis altogether. Here's one of his lectures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41b254BcMJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41b254BcMJM
- mleonhard 5y agoExcellent video! Thank you for sharing the link. Bioelectrics could explain why some cells (like Pancreas beta cells) will not grow in vitro. Recent work has produced gels that enable growing these cells. I expect that the gels provide the electrical fields that the cells expect.
- cpeterso 5y agoIn Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space novels, there is a race of humanoid pigs called "hyperpigs", distant descendants of pigs that had been genetically-enhanced with human DNA to make their organs more compatible with humans for transplant. https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Hyperpigs
- praveen9920 5y agoOn lighter note, patient reportedly asked "Well, will I oink?" Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/health/heart-transplant-pig-bennett.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/health/heart-transplant-p...
- go_elmo 5y agoPigs are extremely close to humans genetically and physiologically, i mean look at those guys: omnivores, no fur (also in some wild races), smart af, this is often overlooked.
- AndrewDucker 5y agoA few weeks ago surgeons transplanted a pig kidney: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/us-pig-kidney-transplant-human-b1941625.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/us-pig-kidney-tra...
- herebedragon 5y agoDr. Dhani Ram Baruah was a pioneer of pig heart transplants and tried this in 1997, and his patient lived for 7 days. However this was not received well and Dr Baruah was later arrested.
- yawaworht1978 5y agoI have worked/imterned on a pig farm once. The pigs realize more than you'd think, their moms know when you're about to castrate the babies and they remember it, too. When the slaughterhouse van comes along, they can feel something is wrong, this is, before the van is even visible. They might remember other pigs not coming back from the ride or something, but to kill another animal to save the human animal is not very nice.
- depr 5y agoWould you refuse a pig heart if it meant the pig would live but you would die? Would you want your loved ones to do so?
- nightowl_games 5y ago> not very nice I have started to specifically think of myself as "not nice". It's a more accurate way to describe myself. I am not nice, nor do I strive to be. Life is hard and so am I.
- plutonorm 5y agoTo try to be nice is to rally against nature itself. If you strive to be nice then you are automatically at odds with the driving force of nature. You want to make the world a nice place? Then by definition there can be no losers and if there are no losers there is no evolution. If there is no evolution, there is no life, only a slow descent bck to maximum entropy. So the ultimate question is not "do you want to be nice?" but "do you prefer life over non life?". Is the pain of existence worth it? some say yes, some say no, both are valid opinions. Personally I say yes. But I wouldn't blame a person for being anti life and working actively to destroy it.
- hogrider 5y agoI get it if it's a vegan argument or something, but come on, we harvest pigs on an industrial scale. We can use their organs however we want because we are the apex predator, that's just life.
- pvaldes 5y agoDeath by swine fever is a totally new scenery in the human race. Now some hog viruses could have an small opportunity to jump to us.
- evancoop 5y agoFirstly, I will resist the urge to quip about the culinary potential of the remainder of the pig or the moral implications of using animals for their organs (especially since we've already decided, at a societal level, that eating them is acceptable). Secondly, this begs the question, "how many other high-risk, high-potential treatments deserve resources and experimentation?" Clearly, if this is successful, the potential for adding quality-adjusted-life-years to humans is enormous. Does this inform how we view other experimental treatment? Does this inform how cryonics is perceived more broadly (at its core, another experimental tool to extend life)?
- jviotti 5y ago> “If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland university’s animal-to-human transplant program. Which means we now think we have the right to kill as many pigs we want not only the eat them but to extract their organs to make humans live. Is this really that different from just killing a random healthy human being to save other humans who need a transplant? We somehow think we are superior than any other animal in earth and have the right to do whatever.