Xenotransplant Pros And Cons

An organ is needed every 10 minutes around the world. There is an average of 79 people who received organ each day. But even with that, due to the shortage of the donated organs, about 22 people die each day because they couldn’t receive the organ transplant in time. Base on that statistic, it is estimated that about 8,030 people lost their life each year because of organ shortages. However, scientists have now discovered a new alternative to reduce the amount of organ shortage called xenotransplantation. Xenotransplant is the process of cells and organs transplantation between animals such as pigs, baboon, etc. to humans. The first xenotransplant was discovered about for more than 100 years ago in the 1900s. Doctors were trying to replace …show more content…
This is because baboons and chimpanzees organs structure were very similar to humans. However, doctors are no longer able to use these animals as a replacement because of their high extinction rates. Due to this, scientists have now leaned toward pigs more because, besides baboons and chimpanzees, they’re the animal with the closest similarity to humans. The anatomy and psychology of pigs are very similar to humans. Their digestive, respiratory, pulmonary and cardiovascular structure are parallel to human. Their sizes can also fit into a newborn baby or a full grown adult (Peggy, 1997). Recent studies have shown that pigs organ may be even more efficient because it is large enough to be grown useful for humans unlike baboon and other species. Even so, scientists have also said that the pig's organs were not close enough to be transplanted into humans without the risk of rejection. As a result, they have come up with the idea of genetically modifying the pigs so that it can be more fitted for humans. Last year, a group of researcher from Harvard University has announced a new line of pigs with 62 genes that were modified to fit the human need. These genes were specifically made to eliminated the common piggie disease that can affect human during and after the transplantation process (Templeton, 2015). However, this is only the first step for a better xenotransplant …show more content…
In the past, baboons who were given pig's organs have never survived for more than a few months. A few years later, a kidney transplant between a Revivicor pig with 6 modified genes was able to support a baboon for 136 days. Just last year, surgeon Muhammad Mohiuddin at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, transplanted a pig heart with 2 modified genes into a baboon abdominal. Although the organ did not replace the baboon heart, the animal was able to live with the transplant for more than 3 years. Research have shown that all case of pig cells, islets, neuronal cells, hepatocytes outcomes transplant have a survival time that is greater than 1 year. If it was used the correct way, pig’s organ and islets can be transplanted to treat diabetics or neuronal cells for patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Hepatocytes for hepatic failure, corneas/neuroretinal cells for tr patients with various forms of blindness and red blood cells for transfusion (which could be particularly useful in countries where HIV infection are common) Many reports have also shown that patient with diabetes have been living off of pig insulin for decades without any infection or new diseases (Esker et al. 2012). Due to the high success rate of transplanting pig islet into humans, it is almost certain that pig islet