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Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

nature.com

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Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#81

Post by derektank »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #66
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

It really depends on the organ. Kidneys stand out as the most successful organs for transplantation, even in allotransplantation (between humans) so it makes sense that they are working well in xeno as well. Kidneys are not as vascularized as some other organs (heart or lung) which probably helps a lot. Heart and lung xenotransplantation are still a ways off and a lot of basic research is still needed to make them wo…

There have already been a couple of attempted heart xenotransplants? Lawrence Faucette being the most recent patient that I've read about.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#82

Post by jibal »

ekianjo wrote: post #12
SoftTalker wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile we can’t figure out how to provide a basic level of housing and healthcare to everyone.

Provide with what money? Every major country is an ocean of debt

That is not how macroeconomics works.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#83

Post by p1dda »

SoftTalker wrote: post #5
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

Meanwhile we can’t figure out how to provide a basic level of housing and healthcare to everyone.

[flagged]

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#85

Post by SoftTalker »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #55
chickenzzzzu wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've figured that out, but certain members of society decided that extracting wealth through protectionist zoning/building code behavior is much, much more lucrative.

that just moves the figuring out one step to the right. knowing how something will work but not knowing how to get it implemented means the problem is not completely figured out yet.

Exactly. We haven't figured out how to solve the problem, because we still have the problem. Maybe it's unsolvable, and it's just a limitation in our ability to live together in large numbers. Or maybe we need to redirect our spending on (among other things) frightfully expensive experimental medicine and spend the money on things that are a lot cheaper and will help a lot more people.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#86

Post by amarant »

didgeoridoo wrote: post #42
parpfish wrote: post #33

I was just thinking about heart transplants and how they’re treated as commonplace now, but they are nuts when you think about them. You can hook up the nerve wires and blood pipes from one body into the heart from another body and it works? Just thinking about the simple physical connections would make me nervous. Why isn’t there blood just leaking out in your body? Why isn’t that other heart sliding out of place wh…

Blood pipes yes, nerves no. Transplanted hearts are de-enervated.

Heart surgeons are straight up deleting the equivalent of dead code produced by evolution.

Heart surgeons are superheroes.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#87

Post by adamredwoods »

Richard Slayman was a pioneer. He made an amazing decision, to see if it could be done. This was hard work done through eGenesis, and the steps to get to this point is quite interesting.

>> First, the donors were often created on a commercial pig breed whose heart and kidney sizes are too large for human application. Although elimination of growth hormone receptor gene expression could reduce organ sizes, it comes with other undesired biological consequences. Second, the donors were designed for testing in OWMs. They lacked the α-Gal (galactose-α-1,3-galactose) or the α-Gal and Sd(a) (Sia-α2.3-[GalNAc-β1.4]Gal-β1.4-GlcNAc) glycans but expressed the Neu5Gc (N-glycolylneuraminic acid) glycan to match with Neu5Gc expression in OWMs. However, in vitro analysis suggests that a human-compatible porcine donor should ideally have all three glycans eliminated to match with the absence of the three glycans in humans. Although renal grafts derived from the porcine donors lacking these three glycans and carrying various human transgenes have been tested in OWMs, graft survival was short8 or not all human transgenes were expressed. Third, the donors carried porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) sequences in their genome, which present a zoonotic risk, as PERV transmission to human cells in culture and their integration into the human genome have been demonstrated.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06594-4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Slayman

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#88

Post by dzhiurgis »

SoftTalker wrote: post #5
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

Meanwhile we can’t figure out how to provide a basic level of housing and healthcare to everyone.

Classic whataboutism.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#89

Post by daedrdev »

krackers wrote: post #77
6SixTy wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: the nerves between the brain and heart are never reattached. A heart already has all of the facilities to keep working all by itself. Even weirder is that an adult kidney transplanted into a child will actually shrink to fit.

But presumably the nerves between the brain and heart exist for a reason. What functionality do you lose by not reattaching them? Do things like "heart beating faster when nervous" depend on this nerve signaling, or is it done via other chemical signaling.

Reading up on this there is some chemical signaling from the blood, but the brain is not controlling the rate of the new heart

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#90

Post by TMWNN »

quasarj wrote: post #53
_heimdall wrote: post #35

I have always wondered what decision I would make facing such a health concern. > Reaching 12 months would be another milestone and a “fantastic long-term outcome”, he adds. I am surprised by this being considered a long-term outcome though. Going through the high risk of a kidney transplant, immunosuppression required, risk of using a pig kidney in general, etc seems like a lot if the hope is for 12 months as a long…

I've been on dialysis for 5 years now... which means when I eventually get listed for transplant, I'll be at the top of the list, because nobody survives 5 years...

This may offer some hope: Thomas Yuen lived for 42 years on dialysis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Yuen>
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