(University of Maryland Medical Center)
David Bennett, the world's first recipient of a genetically modified (GM) pig heart, died on March 8. The cause of death has not yet been announced.
Bennett ended up in the hospital in the fall of 2021 with an arrhythmia. He did not meet the criteria for either a donor heart transplant or an artificial valve.
His condition was so severe that the doctors connected him to an ECMO machine, which pumped blood through him and saturated it with oxygen, working both for the heart and for the lungs at once.
Then the doctors suggested that he try out an experimental method of treatment, a heart transplant from a GM pig.
Doctors have been trying to transplant organs from ordinary animals for a long time, but the recipients of such organs quickly develop an acute immune response, and the body rejects the transplant.
For example, in 1984, a newborn American woman received a baboon heart transplant, but she died three weeks later.
To mitigate the rejection reaction, scientists began to develop lines of modified pigs, whose cells carry fewer antigens unfamiliar to the human immune system.
The doctors offered to test one of these developments for Bennett, having previously explained to him all the risks. The FDA approved this experimental operation on December 31, 2021.
Bennett agreed and received a heart from a Revivicor pig, which had ten different genes modified in its genome.
A few days after the operation, in mid-January 2022, the doctors reported that it was successful, and they did not notice any signs of rejection.
After that, Bennett was left in the hospital, where he underwent rehabilitation, communicated with his family and hoped to be discharged home soon.
Amid the success of Maryland doctors, German biotechnologists have announced that they will purposefully raise donor pigs for such surgeries.
At the same time, a discussion arose in the media about how ethically the doctors acted.
It turned out that in his youth Bennett was convicted for attacking a man, that remained paralyzed for the rest of his life.
On March 9, 2022, the Maryland Clinic announced that Bennett had passed away the day before.
The cause of death was not disclosed, the doctors only noted that a few days before his condition began to worsen, and he had only to provide palliative care.
Source:
- University of Maryland Medical Center: https://www.umms.org/ummc/news/2022/in-memoriam-david-bennett
- WJS: https://www.wsj.com/articles/david-bennett-the-patient-who-received-a-pig-heart-dies-two-months-after-transplant-11646842067
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