Pig’s heart in human

Tags: Science and Technology

Surgeons in the United States have transplanted a pig’s heart in a human patient that represents a remarkable first in the world of medical science, one whose success could potentially end the years-long backlog of people waiting to get a healthy organ and open up a new world of opportunities.

• The highly experimental surgery was performed on a 57 year old Maryland resident, David Bennett at the University of Maryland Medicine (UMM) on January 7, 2022.
• Surgeon Dr. Bartley P Griffith conducted the first-in-the-world surgery.

Gene editing by the United States biotech firm Revivicor:

• The transplanted heart was harvested from the pig that had undergone genetic editing. 
• The scientists removed the three genes of the pig  “that would have led to rejection of an animal's heart by the human body” along with the one that would have led to the excessive growth of pig’s heart tissues.
• Further six human genes that would have facilitated the organ’s acceptance by the human body were inserted into the pig genome, meaning that a total of 10 unique edits were carried out in the pig.

Xenotransplantation:

The process of transplanting or grafting of animal organs is known as Xenotransplantation.

Points to Know:

• The world’s first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa on 3 December 1967.
•  In India the first heart transplant was  done by Dr. Prafulla Sen on 16 February 1968 in Bombay now Mumbai, however the patient died on the same day 
• The first successful heart transplant in India was done by a team of Doctors led by Dr. P. Venugopal at AIIMS, New Delhi on 3 August 1994.