He had been the first to be transplanted with a genetically modified pig’s heart, on January 7, 2022, in the United States. David Bennett is dead. The experience allowed him to live two more months while he was sentenced. A hope for a large number of patients awaiting transplants.
David Bennett’s state of health did not allow him to consider a classic heart transplant, and he was totally voluntary for this experimental transplant. His son was also pleased with these precious weeks spent with the family, thanks to this operation.
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A note of hope for xenografts
For the researchers, what should be remembered from this experience is not the death of David Bennett but the fact that he lived for two months with a genetically modified pig’s heart. Moreover, for several weeks there were no signs of rejection.
The scientific director of the xenotransplantation program at the University of Maryland Hospital, Muhammad Mohiuddin is optimistic. He believes that this operation will provide very interesting data for future xenotransplantations – in other words, transplants from another animal species. The pig has long been considered a potential source of grafts for humans, if its organs can be modified to avoid rejection by the body.
Professor Philippe Menasché, cardiac surgeon at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital (APHP), interviewed by Frederique Genot of the France service, also maintains that this is a step forward for research: ” My reaction is twofold, disappointment and sadness, of course, at the death of this patient… but also hope, because it is already a real feat to have enabled this patient to survive for two months, and because all organ transplants, at the beginning, resulted in failures from which a lot has been learned.
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It is precisely this learning that allows organ transplantation, whatever the organ considered, to be today an intervention that saves thousands of lives. I think that we absolutely must not be discouraged by this death, as sad as it is, and continue to explore this path of xenografts. »
Xenografts arouse immense hope. In the United States, 11,0000 people are currently waiting for organ transplants.
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