xenotransplantation
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NYU Doctors Perform First-Ever Pig Kidney Transplant Combined With Heart Pump Implant
Another milestone in pig-to-human transplantation has been crossed, with doctors at New York University Langone today announcing the world’s first combination pig kidney and heart pump transplant. The recipient is a 54-year-old woman named Lisa Pisano who was diagnosed with terminal kidney disease and heart failure. The concept of animal-to-human organ transplantation, or xenotransplantation, has…
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After First Setback, Second Pig Heart Transplant Provokes Cautious Optimism
58-year-old Lawrence Faucette has become a medical milestone this month, being only the second living person in the world to have received a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig. His doctors at the University at Maryland School of Medicine say that Faucette appears to be doing well and that his new heart is functioning…
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A Pig Virus May Have Killed First Recipient of Transplanted Pig Heart
Evidence of a virus that infects pigs was found in the body of David Bennet Sr., the recipient of a genetically modified pig heart in an experimental transplant surgery. Bennet died in March at 57 years old, two months after undergoing the last-resort operation, which was the first of its kind ever performed.
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Doctors Transplant Two Pig Kidneys at Once Into a Human
This week, a team at the University of Alabama said they were able to transplant two kidneys from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead patient, a step beyond previous experiments that transplanted only one pig kidney. The Alabama doctors say the kidneys were able to function as expected and weren’t immediately rejected by the…