Current status of xenotransplantation

Abstract

1. The transplantation of organs and tissues from animals into humans (i.e. xenotransplantation) has been a long sought objective to allow xenotransplantation to achieve its full impact in the clinical practice of medicine. 2. The main hurdles to the application of xenotransplantation are the immunological reaction of the recipient against the transplant, the functional limitations of tissues and organs in biogenetically disparate recipients and the possibility of transferring infectious organisms from the graft into the recipient. 3. Advances in a variety of fields have shed new light on these hurdles and have given rise to potential solutions and prospects for the clinical application of xenotransplant and are summarized in the report that follows.