Critically, this includes the eventual failure of the transplant, which was triggered by the death of many of the muscle cells in the transplanted heart. But the reason for that death isn't clear, and the typical signs of rejection by the immune system weren't present.
Because those busted capillaries fed the heart with oxygen, cardiac muscle cells began to die in their absence. On day 60, Griffith's team withdrew life support because Bennett's heart had been irreversibly damaged.
Officially, the cause of death was heart failure, however, the organ didn't fail because it was rejected. Upon autopsying the heart, the researchers discovered the transplanted pig heart developed a dramatic thickening of the ventricular walls.
The transplanted pig heart functioned well for several weeks and displayed none of the typical signs of rejection by the patient's body, even when it was carefully examined during an autopsy, according to the analysis in the paper.
The patient lived for 61 days. Researchers have been working on this new pig-to-human transplantation technique for over 30 years. If successful, harvesting hearts from genetically modified pigs, whose genes have been altered so that they can be safely transplanted to humans, may one day be a reality.
But primates are hard to care for, are prone to infection, and their bodies don't always react the same as humans. “In the last few years, we've seen survivals of pig hearts in nonhuman primates going six to nine months. That's huge and that's really a big advance,” Sykes said.
A pig's heart is anatomically similar to a human, they pose less of a disease risk and the animals grow quickly, making them an excellent substitute. Crucially, by modifying a pig's genetics, Mohuiddin was able to render the transplanted hearts invisible to the baboon's immune system.
The longest surviving heart transplant patient is Harold Sokyrka (Canada, b. 16 January 1952), who has lived for 34 years and 359 days after receiving his transplant on 3 June 1986, in London, Ontario, Canada as verified on 28 May 2021.
Episode 5 of 6-part series for Channel 5/National Geographic. The Pig That Called for Help is a drama-documentary recounting how a pet pig summoned medical attention for a dying woman. Heart patient Jo Ann Altsman was alone when she collapsed while holidaying in Pennsylvania.
The virus was first detected in blood taken 20 days after Bennett's transplant. The team tried various treatments, including a drug used to tackle human cytomegalovirus infections, called cidofovir, and Bennett seemed to be recovering before a rapid deterioration in his condition.
The deceased donor's heart can be restarted on the machine and tested to see if it will function well enough for transplantation. More than 100 such transplants have been carried out in the UK and the outcome at one year is similar to hearts transplanted from DBD donors.
One problem, however, is that pigs, like most mammals, have a sugar molecule called alpha-gal that humans (and some nonhuman primates) do not. The human immune system produces a severe immune reaction to alpha-gal, leading the body to reject the transplanted organ.
Not so, said Church, who points out that the cost of a heart transplant in the US is around $1.66 million, according to the most recent estimates, while pig transplants, judging solely on the cost of the pig heart transplants for baboons, are a comparative steal at just $500,000.
After entering the human body, a replicating zoonotic virus could generate millions of mutations a day, because their mechanism for gene copying is naturally error prone. A pig virus replicating in a lung transplanted into a human could produce variants that may be capable of recognizing and infecting human cells.
The world record: 56 years
On average, a transplanted kidney from a deceased donor lasts about 15 years.
Heroic pig saves owner from a heart attack
Her dog also barked but also got no response. Then Lulu came through with her bravery and quick thinking. She saw JoAnn and realized she was in distress, then ran to get help. She had to bust out of their backyard, which left her skin cut up and bleeding.
Human hair and teeth, on the other hand (or hoof), are not digestible to hogs and will get left behind.
As the other animals watch through the window, they find they are unable to tell pigs and humans apart. The pigs have started to dress and behave exactly like humans. The book's final image expresses the animals' realization that the pigs have become as cruel and oppressive as human farmers.
“Actually, it is not unusual for someone who receives a heart transplant at a relatively young age to need a second transplant,” said Mark J. Zucker, MD, JD, Director of the Heart Failure Treatment and Transplant Program.
While transplanted organs can last the rest of your life, many don't. Some of the reasons may be beyond your control: low-grade inflammation from the transplant could wear on the organ, or a persisting disease or condition could do to the new organ what it did to the previous one.
It's now been 34 years since Dr Victor Chang performed a life-saving heart transplant on Fiona Coote. Now all these years later, Fiona is Australia's longest surviving heart transplant recipient.
The hagfish, sometimes called the slime eel, has one true heart plus three accessory pumps helping the blood to move. Just when you thought you had heard it all, some animals are heartless. Jellyfish, starfish, and even corals manage very well without hearts.
Some monkey viruses—for example, herpes 8—are deadly to humans in a matter of days (7). The costs of raising pathogen-free herds in large enough numbers to satisfy clinical demand are felt to be prohibitive. Finally, the ethical obstacles to using nonhuman primates as organ donors for humans are considerable (8, 9).
Bonobos and chimpanzees look very similar and both share 98.7% of their DNA with humans—making the two species our closest living relatives.