In 202 1 and 10, David Bennett first came to UMMC. It is understood that Bennett is an office worker in Hagerstown, Maryland. He is not considered qualified for traditional human heart transplantation. Generally speaking, he is not suitable for human heart transplantation because he is bedridden and lives by machines.
Therefore, on June 7th, 65438, the Medical College of the University of Maryland, after receiving the emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, transplanted the genetically edited pig heart into 57-year-old David Bennett. The operation lasted seven hours.
David Bennett also said the day before the operation: "Either die or have a transplant. This is my last choice. " He also fully understands the risks of surgery and knows that surgery is experimental.
Some netizens want to know what it means to genetically edit a pig's heart. In fact, scientists have modified animals, removed the pig gene that causes ultra-rapid rejection, and added human genes to help the human body accept organs.
After the operation, the transplanted heart performed very well within a few weeks without any signs of rejection. He can also live with his family and participate in physical therapy to help restore his physical strength. Regrettably, on March 9, the University of Maryland Medical Center announced that David Bennett, a patient who saved his life two months ago because of a successful pig heart transplant, died in the hospital on the 8 th.
In fact, the medical community has always been interested in xenotransplantation, and related experiments can be traced back to17th century. That is 1984, the dying California baby Fae lived with the baboon heart for 2 1 day. Therefore, compared with one of the last milestones of xenotransplantation, the pig heart edited by David Bennett has a much longer survival time.
Dr. Griffith, clinical director of the transplant surgery and heart xenotransplantation program at the University of Maryland Medical Center, also pointed out that David Bennett's courage and firm will to survive are well known to millions of people all over the world. This operation is expected to provide transplant surgeons with information to improve the results and may help future patients save lives.
So what caused the failure of the operation?
According to the website of the University of Maryland reported on June 30th, after a year of research, The Lancet published a case analysis report on this operation:
First, David Bennett's health was poor and his immune system was seriously damaged before transplantation, so the effective anti-rejection scheme used in pre-clinical research of transplantation could not be used normally. In addition, intravenous immunoglobulin after transplantation may also cause myocardial cell damage. Because in the second month after transplantation, he received two injections to help prevent infection, which may also trigger an immune activation reaction to pig heart. Finally, the new study also found that there may be latent virus of porcine cytomegalovirus/porcine rosette virus in the heart of xenotransplantation pigs, which may also lead to transplantation dysfunction. In other words, after patients reduce antiviral therapy, the virus may be activated, which may lead to inflammatory reaction and cell damage. But it also shows that there is no evidence that the virus has infected patients or spread to organs other than the heart. Yes, "rejection" is a difficulty that all organ transplant projects need to face. That is to say, the human immune system may produce rejection reaction to foreign tissues or organs, and the result of this reaction may be large or small, and in serious cases, it will be fatal.
Seeing this, many netizens may feel the same way with me. Yes, although experts let us see the hope of life through gene editing technology, it is still difficult to survive for a long time. Therefore, the road behind "transforming" organs is really long. Generally speaking, the number of failures has increased, but it has not stopped scientists from starting new explorations and pursuits again and again in setbacks. ...