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Researchers Keep Pig Heart Beating In Baboon Belly For 2 Years (arstechnica.com) 110

Posted by BeauHD from the world-book-of-records dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Researchers report Tuesday that they were able to keep pig hearts alive and beating in the abdomens of five baboons for record amounts of time -- a median of 298 days and a max of 945 days. Previous benchmarks were set at a median of 180 and a max of 500 days, respectively. Currently in the US, 22 people die every day just waiting for organs, which are in constant short supply. To help solve the problem, researchers turned to pigs years ago to see if they could lend useful organs or at least provide temporary "bridge" tissue to those on wait-lists. Pigs were a good fit mainly because their organs' sizes are similar to that of human's. In early studies, successful survival time in pig-to-primate transplants, generally called xenotransplants, were measured in minutes. The swine substitutes naturally have a molecular marker, called alpha 1-3-galactosyltransferase (gal), which triggers deadly blood clots in primates. In the new study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health and colleagues, tweaked the approach; they engineered the gal-knock out pigs to have extra anti-clotting genetic features and used an antibody to selectively shut down the part of the primate's immune system that responds to pig organs. To avoid needlessly killing the baboons and doing extensive surgery, the researchers opted to transplant the pig hearts into the baboon's abdomens, leaving the primates' hearts in place. In the abdomen, the pig tickers hooked up to circulatory system and beat for a record-breaking amount of time.
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Researchers Keep Pig Heart Beating In Baboon Belly For 2 Years More

Researchers Keep Pig Heart Beating In Baboon Belly For 2 Years

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  • it's better than: Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)

  • To avoid needlessly killing the baboons and doing extensive surgery, the researchers opted to transplant the pig hearts into the baboon's abdomens, leaving the primates' hearts in place.

    I though ulcers were bad.

  • Very clever keeping the organs alive for testing without harming the host.

    In future dating site banter, this may beg the question, "Are you all original or part GMO?"

  • Organ donors (Score:4)

    by buchner.johannes ( 1139593 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @08:22PM (#51850055) Homepage Journal

    Currently in the US, 22 people die every day just waiting for organs, which are in constant short supply. To help solve the problem, researchers turned to pigs

    Or, you know, make organ donor opt-out instead of opt-in, like other countries ... that also solves the problem.

    • If the "problem" is that the state doesn't own the people, living or dead. If people elect to selfishly take their bodies with them to the grave, you have to deal with it because as "progressives" like to tell us when it suits their arguments, you can't legislate morality.

      If you believe that the state actually owns the life, liberty, and property of its subjects, then there's no point in discussing any of this with you.

      • When people say "rights" they tend to mean one of two things: the abstract concept or the empirical one. With the former, whether or not property rights endure past the end of your life is a matter of philosophy and debate. With the latter concept of "rights", they mostly pertain to what can be enforced, either by you or on your behalf. Your ability to enforce rights on your behalf certainly ends with death, and whether or not others are willing to do so is an open question.

        However, you will note that there

  • Would a successful xenotransplant result in a xenomorph?

  • Now you can have your bacon and eat it too ... mmmm bacon!

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] Strangely apropos.
  • 22 people a day die waiting for replacement organs and they thought it more ethical to put these hearts inside baboon stomachs?

    • Note that, in previous studies, the baboons lived for minutes before a reaction to the pig heart led to a deadly blood clot.

      Were I on the waiting list for an organ, I think I'd rather stay on the list and try to live another day than get a heart that would kill me before I left the operating room.

      Now that the study is complete, they can figure out why the hearts only lasted 1-3 years, and try again. They probably still aren't ready for humans.

    • 22 people a day die waiting for replacement organs and they thought it more ethical to put these hearts inside baboon stomachs?

      Ha, Ha, charade your are.

  • Marginally more ethical than this study: https://youtu.be/cQ7J7UjsRqg [youtu.be]

  • Doctor Baboon (Score:4, Funny)

    by GuB-42 ( 2483988 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @09:23PM (#51850447)

    Two hearts... Is this baboon a swinelord?

  • Hardly counts without mechanical stress (Score:4, Informative)

    by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @09:34PM (#51850497)

    I'm afraid that without the tremendous wear, tear, and turbulence of an active heart pumping the approximate 20 liters of blood per minute of a human heart, the test is interesting but hardly complete. Turbulence can trigger blood clots, which are one of the main risks of transplants. Another risk of cardiac transplants is the failure of the connections to original veins and arteries. Until and unless those are tested under significant load, the experiments remain very incomplete.

    Also, given the compatibility issues of pig hearts, I'm quite startled that human hearts of incorrect tissue matches are not more viable. I'm aware that few hearts are harvested in good condition, but I'm surprised that this difficult and risky xenotransplant is serously considered. If it were merely skin grafts, or blood vessel grafts for repairs, I'd understand it better.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Soon? We have lot's of redundant organs! Two lungs, two kidneys, two testicles/ovaries...

      • I remember on ST:TNG Dr. Crusher remarking on Klingons having a third lung and extra ribs, presumably due to natural selection in a warlike species.

  • Great idea, if you never want to have kids. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tlambert ( 566799 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @10:23PM (#51850673)

    Great idea, if you never want to have kids.

    One of the big problems with xeno-transplants from pigs is PERV (Porcine Endogenous RetroVirus).

    We've treated a number of people with Parkinson's in the U.S. (many more in Russia, where the technique was pioneered) using fetal pig stem cells from the brains. However, we're typically worried about introducing the virus to the human genome, since it become part of the actual genome of the organism (hence "endogenous"). One of the requirements to participate in the clinical trials was an agreement to not have unprotected sex which might result in a pregnancy -- ever -- to keep it out of the human genome.

    • Why not save sperm/eggs and then vasectomy/tubectomy before the treatment?

  • "Why you pig hearted baboon!"

  • Scientists announced that theyve kept the brain of a baboon alive inside the head of a well known NYC real estate tycoon turned politician. "We decline to name the individual as we are still collecting research data and do not want to influence the experiment".
    "Preliminary data suggests that the transplant was a huge success, with most people being unable to tell that 'subject X' wasnt really 'firing on all cylinders'. Eventually we'll have to restore the patients original brain. At that time we can also remove the poodle we transplanted onto the subjects scalp to cover the scars from the operation."

    • Geez, can you keep this kind of National Enquirer junk off Slashdot please?

      It's plain for EVERYONE to see that both:
      a) a baboon would be smarter than this politician, and
      b) a poodle would have better looking fur

  • researchers turned to pigs years ago to see if they could lend useful organs

    Yeah, perhaps not quite grasping the intricacies of transplant surgery there...

  • Spoiler: the pigs died (Score:3)

    by fygment ( 444210 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @06:05AM (#51851967)

    The article makes the point about 'rather than killing the baboons'. The baboons weren't exactly enjoying a 'life' but you can see where this would go. It would be cheaper if you could reuse baboons (expensive) for successive hearts.

    Odd: The article concludes that experiments have to be carried out using the process but with animals whose own hearts have been removed. Not sure what the point is. Apparently, a pig's heart when left in the pig will beat for at least a decade if not prematurely stopped.

  • http://www.xenodiaries.org/summary.htm (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Dan Lyons, author of Diaries of Despair and a joint Defendant with Uncaged Campaigns, comments:

    "We have consistently argued throughout the proceedings that the clear evidence of horrific animal suffering and Government misconduct means that there is an overwhelming public interest in the publication of these confidential documents. Ironically, the fact that we have been forced to win a legal battle to publish the evidence simply confirms the scandalous implications of the documents.

    "Now, for the first time

  • their organs' sizes are similar to that of human's.

    How many human organs are they (and are they all the same size)? How many humans? Do you really need a possessive when you have "of"?

  • This might be unpopular, but consider this: there's far less baboons on the planet than people, baboons populations and behaviors are having no negative impact on the planet (while humans obviously are), and we're torturing them in medical experiments under the premise that it might one day save a human life.

  • Because this is how we end up with Ultramarines.

  • If the rate of available organs isn't high enough to cover the rate of those in need. How does extending the life of those in need change that? Is that not just putting newer additions to the need list further behind while complicating the recovery of those with pig hearts?

    I mean, its neat. I just don't see how it will help unless there are times where a viable heart is waiting for a patient, not the other way around. At lest then you might hope that an oversupply of donated hearts occurs and you could

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