- David Bennett-a US man has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.
- Doctors have transplanted the heart from a genetically modified pig into the chest of David Bennett in a last-ditch effort to save his life.
- The first-of-its-kind surgery is being hailed as a major step forward in the decades-long effort to successfully transplant animal organs into humans.
- Although it’s been tried before — one of the earliest subjects, known as Baby Fae, survived 21 days with a baboon’s heart in 1984, the practice has fallen into disuse because the animal organs are usually quickly rejected by their human host.
- The experimental practice of transplanting animal organs into humans — known as xenotransplants — was largely abandoned after the Baby Fae case in 1984.
- However, this time the pig used in the transplant had been genetically modified to knock out several genes that would have led to the organ being rejected by Mr Bennett’s body.
- Pig hearts are anatomically similar to human hearts but, understandably, not identical.
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