Researchers have successfully transplanted genetically modified pig hearts into two recently deceased people.
"Our goal is to integrate the techniques used in ordinary, everyday heart transplants only with a non-human organ that will befunction normally without additional assistance from untested devices or medications," Nader saidMoazami, director of the Heart Transplant Unit at NYU Langone Transplant Institute.
The team performed the transplant on June 16 and July 9,and each recipient was followed up for three days. During this time, the hearts functioned normally, and there were no signs of rejection from the recipients, who were put on ventilators to keep their body processes functioning semi-regularly even after death.
The two pig hearts were sourced from the biotechnology company Revivicor, which producesThe pigs had 10 genetic modifications – four to block pig genes and prevent rejection, and six to add human genes.