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Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

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Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#141

Post by BrtByte »

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…

We're deep into the part of the sci-fi timeline where the tech works, and now the real challenge is cultural, ethical, and existential

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#142

Post by BrtByte »

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…

Totally agree that kidneys are the logical starting point. Lower immunological complexity + less vascularization makes them more forgiving as a test case. The lung, on the other hand… yeah, that's a whole different beast

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#143

Post by signa11 »

0x1ceb00da wrote: post #121
signa11 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fwiw, biological heart valves, as opposed to metallic valves, are already quite commonly used today. biological ones are typically made from either cows, or pigs (bovine, porcine respectively). but this is on another level altogether.

But why cows and pigs and not chimps?

most likely because their (heart) valve anatomy is similar to humans ? this is just a guess btw.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#144

Post by goku12 »

matonski wrote: post #106

"This is the longest a pig organ has survived in a living person." Not quite the way I thought it should be phrased...

A bit of medical and historical context seems to invert its interpretation entirely. For example Louis Washkansky, the recipient of the first human transplant (performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1967 in Cape Town, South Africa) lived for only 18 days before passing away from pneumonia. But nobody considers that historical fact as a negative when thinking about heart transplants these days. In comparison, this statement about the pig kidney is actually very exciting. It means that the xenotransplantation technology is progressing rapidly and will soon become widely available. They seem to have overcome most of the serious difficulties in the process.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#145

Post by BrtByte »

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…

The part that always gets me is the lack of nerve reconnection - the heart keeps beating on its own, no nervous system hookup required. It's literally running off internal timing, like a mechanical watch made of cells

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#147

Post by Maxion »

goku12 wrote: post #134
october8140 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The donor pig is turned into bacon. Normally the liver goes in the trash.

Asking out of ignorance. Why is the liver thrown out? Isn't it edible too?

Who would eat it these days? The same with e.g. sheepskins. The labor to process them in western countries is so high so they generally just get thrown away.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#148

Post by BrtByte »

goku12 wrote: post #144
matonski wrote: post #106

"This is the longest a pig organ has survived in a living person." Not quite the way I thought it should be phrased...

A bit of medical and historical context seems to invert its interpretation entirely. For example Louis Washkansky, the recipient of the first human transplant (performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1967 in Cape Town, South Africa) lived for only 18 days before passing away from pneumonia. But nobody considers that historical fact as a negative when thinking about heart transplants these days. In comparison, this sta…

What seems like a small step now often ends up being the foundation for something revolutionary a decade later

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#149

Post by KronisLV »

isatty wrote: post #104
magicalhippo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A family member needed a kidney transplant in the early 60s. This was in the UK where the first successful transplant was in 1959, so just a few years earlier. Thanks to a kid on a motorcycle she got a kidney just in the nick of time. She was in her early 20s and was told she could expect a few years. Because of that she never had kids. Her donated kidney served her well and she lived a quite normal life. She passed…

Not a doctor, but I suppose she should’ve eventually told them in the interest of science. Also, pregnancy has a heavy toll so who knows? Maybe it was a good thing she didn’t. We don’t know.

> Not a doctor, but I suppose she should’ve eventually told them in the interest of science.

Glad she had a largely fulfilling life, but also thinking this. As much as it was her choice what to do with her body, it’s probably a good idea to at least tell the healthcare professionals about things like that, even if after the fact.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#150

Post by lloeki »

ofalkaed wrote: post #8
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…

I think Alan Kay deserves the credit for the tablet. We have vague allusions to tablet like things before Kay but it was Kay who really came up with concept.

Does he? It seems to be mostly keyboard operated, and references to any stylus interaction seem to be retconed, let alone direct touch ones.

My search only finds modern claims that he's the true tablet inventor and tablets are touch this and stylus that, but these poison results about any possible original reference of that interaction model having been conceived at the time.

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