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

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.

49 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Better them than me... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    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.

  2. Fantastic! by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    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?"

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Fantastic! by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      I've got news for you, we're all part GMO.

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
  3. Organ donors by buchner.johannes · · Score: 3

    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.

    --
    NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    1. Re:Organ donors by rhazz · · Score: 1

      Growing organs in a lab for general transplant use is still a ways off. The OP's suggestion is quite reasonable in the meantime, given that a lot of people probably don't mind donating organs but they're just too lazy to opt in.

    2. Re:Organ donors by operagost · · Score: 1

      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.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    3. Re:Organ donors by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      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 is a difference between "opt-out" and "mandatory". Perhaps you'd like to revise your argument to take that into account.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  4. Game over, man, game over by suupaabaka · · Score: 1

    Would a successful xenotransplant result in a xenomorph?

  5. Great! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

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

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  6. Mega Baboons by spiritplumber · · Score: 1
    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
  7. Re:Scientists playing GOD by WarJolt · · Score: 1

    Transplantation of pig snouts and ears. I always thought miss piggy was sexy. Why stop with pigs? We can give a whole new meaning to hung like a horse.

  8. Re:Really? by SydShamino · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    It doesn't hurt to be nice.
  9. Re:other side of the fence by alvinrod · · Score: 1

    I doubt a baboon is capable of communicating its thoughts on the matter to the researchers. I'm not sure baboons have been taught sign language, but even if they were it's unlikely that they could understand such a question.

  10. Re:other side of the fence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You should go rescue the poor monkeys.
    But try not to have your face torn off by any of them.
    They can get quite carried away with gratitude.

  11. Re:other side of the fence by turbidostato · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Did anyone ask the baboon's opinion on having a pig's heart pointlessly stuck in his stomach?"

    Yes. The baboons answered they hated it. So they stopped pointlessly putting pigs' hearts into baboons stomachs.

    Then they went back to the baboons and asked about putting pigs' hearts into their stomachs, not pointlessly but in order to study how they could eventually better the life expectancy for humans in need of a transplant. To that, the baboons agreed.

    That's, little boy, how this situation came to be. Promise.

  12. Re:Scientists playing GOD by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He saved Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah, and Lot went on to get both his daughters pregnant while he was living in a cave... but that's ok, because he was drunk at the time! So, since Lot is one of the HEROES of the Old Testament, that means what Trump wants to do to his own daughter is ok, right? Where was I going with this... you wonder where people get all these perverted ideas from? The Bible is certainly one source...

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  13. Re:Scientists playing GOD by Locke2005 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Oh wait, here was the point: why did Sodom get two sex acts named after it, but Gomorah didn't get any? Because whenever the newspaper says somebody was arrested for sodomy, I always ask, "Can you be more specific?"

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  14. Re:Scientists playing GOD by Locke2005 · · Score: 2

    If Kermit the Frog dates outside his own species... is that still bestiality?

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  15. Doctor Baboon by GuB-42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Two hearts... Is this baboon a swinelord?

  16. Re:other side of the fence by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    Did anyone ask the baboon's opinion on having a pig's heart pointlessly stuck in his stomach?

    I hope you stay firmly attached to your high-horse when you given the option between having a pig's heart and dying.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  17. Hardly counts without mechanical stress by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  18. Woh by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

    Am I reading this right? They have two hearts now, hooked to the same system?

    I would think there would be the potential for one to interfere with the other, pretty neat.

    Redundant organs soon?

    1. Re:Woh by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

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

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    2. Re:Woh by operagost · · Score: 1

      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.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  19. Re:Scientists playing GOD by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

    how this ended last time.

    With a Paul Simon video?

  20. Great idea, if you never want to have kids. by tlambert · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Great idea, if you never want to have kids. by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

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

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    2. Re:Great idea, if you never want to have kids. by tlambert · · Score: 1

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

      Already being solved

      The CRISPR/Cas9 technique used in that article to inactivate PERVs was prematurely reported. Specifically, it's nearly impossible to come up with an edit sequence that does not match another edit sequence, since you are typically talking, at most, about 28 base pairs.

      This tends to be a problem for large genomes, in that it typically hits multiple locations that have the same sequences, rather than just the target location. This was seen in the Chinese experiments on human embryos regarding Juvenile Huntington's and DMD (Duchesne Muscular Dystrophy).

      At present, you have to therefore make the modifications in vitro, then grow colonies of cell, and then sort out the ones that have off-target CRISPR modifications. So far this technique has only been used experimentally for autologous transplants from farmed cells from an individual with a disease that the experimenter is attempting to cure.

      So while this might work to grow "safe pigs" to use for transplant material, you'd pretty much have to grow them as embryos in vitro, place the ones with the desired characteristics in vivo, row them into pigs, and then continue to grow them until the organs you wanted to harvest were large enough to be viable for transplant.

      Not to downplay the blood protein IgE reaction suppression: it's a pretty cool breakthrough, but using the organs for transplant into humans is quite a ways off (we are actually more likely to edit the histamine complex on c6 to ensure histocompatibility instead, first).

      In general, if you are considering a xenotransplant at all, it's usually time critical enough that you are not going to be able to wait for the pig to grow to the necessary size.

  21. Did they play this song? by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 1
    --
    Mostly random stuff.
  22. A new insult meme rises: by Hartree · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Why you pig hearted baboon!"

  23. Scientists keep baboon brain alive in NYC real est by mnemotronic · · Score: 4, Funny

    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."

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
  24. Err... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    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...

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  25. Spoiler: the pigs died by fygment · · Score: 2

    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.

    --
    "Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
  26. Re:Really? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

    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.

  27. http://www.xenodiaries.org/summary.htm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    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 in history, the public can discover the true scale of misery and distress caused by vivisection, and the corrupt politics that allows such atrocities to take place. We're entering a new era in the debate about animal experiments."

  28. Re:other side of the fence by qbast · · Score: 1

    Call the waaaambulance.

  29. How many by edittard · · Score: 1

    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"?

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  30. Unpopular point by tom229 · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  31. Re:Sociopaths. Sickening. by tom229 · · Score: 2

    I have seen a baboon attack a rival, beat it to the point it was rendered paralysed, and then commence to eat parts off it's back while it's still alive and screaming. Eating meat is part of nature, and humans are biologically wired to do so. Your argument about it being cruel to use animals in medical experiments is sound however.

    --
    If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  32. Want Ultramarines? by Rinikusu · · Score: 1

    Because this is how we end up with Ultramarines.

    --
    If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
  33. Re:Scientists playing GOD by operagost · · Score: 1

    OK, don't feed the trolls, and that includes by trolling them.

    Protip: not everyone in the NT is a "hero", and just because God thought Lot was righteous enough to save doesn't mean he thought Lot was a sinless paragon of virtue. FYI, it's written that he was dead drunk, so blaming him for that incident is like blaming a date rape victim. Getting flat-assed drunk was his sin here.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  34. Re:Scientists keep baboon brain alive in NYC real by CyberKnet · · Score: 1

    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

    --
    Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor - Ovidius
  35. How does this help? by r2rknot · · Score: 1

    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 get one. Otherwise it seems kind of pointless.

    --
    "...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive...it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."
  36. Re:Sociopaths. Sickening. by Wulfson · · Score: 1

    Found the vegan

  37. Re:Scientists playing GOD by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Technically, sodomy should mean being too neglectful of the poor. However, it's much more comfortable to say that a sex act you don't practice is sinful than to say that not doing something you don't want to do is sinful.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  38. Re:Scientists playing GOD by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Protip, Lot was in the Old Testament, not the New Testament. The New Testament is about Jesus, who was descended from Lot, but Lot was in Genesis.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  39. Re:Einstein joke by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Makes you wonder how low someone's IQ has to be to even consider voting for Hillary. I'm just waiting for the FBI to announce the charges in their investigation, it should be interesting.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  40. Re:Scientists playing GOD by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    Dead drunk, but he could still get it up and get it off enough to get two women pregnant? Lot must have been one hell of a man! Maybe he SHOULD be thought of as as hero!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  41. Re:Scientists playing GOD by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    Meh... I've read better porn... I'd give it a 6 out of 10, but at least I could fap to it.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.