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. 2022 Nov 12;24(Suppl I):I160-I164.
doi: 10.1093/eurheartjsupp/suac107. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Cardiology of the future: xenotransplantation with porcine heart

Gianfranco Sinagra  1 , Linda Pagura  1   2 , Cinzia Radesich  1 , Giulia Gagno  1 , Antonio Cannata'  1 , Davide Barbisan  1 , Marco Cittar  1 , Alessia Paldino  1 , Maria Perotto  1 , Marco Mase'  1 , Matteo Dal Ferro  1 , Enzo Mazzaro  2 , Marco Merlo  1
Affiliations

Cardiology of the future: xenotransplantation with porcine heart

Gianfranco Sinagra et al. Eur Heart J Suppl. .

Abstract

The reduced availability of human donor hearts compared with the needs of patients with advanced heart failure refractory to medical therapy has promoted the search for therapeutic alternatives to cardiac allografts. Porcine heart xenotransplantation represents one of the most promising frontiers in this field today. From the first researches in the 1960s to today, the numerous advances achieved in the field of surgical techniques, genetic engineering and immunosuppression have made it possible at the beginning of 2022 to carry out the first swine-to-human heart transplant, attaining a survival of 2 months after surgery. The main intellectual and experimental stages that have marked the history of xenotransplantation, the latest acquisitions in terms of genetic editing, as well as the improvement of immunosuppressive therapy are discussed analytically in this article in order to illustrate the underlying complexity of this therapeutic model.

Keywords: Genetic engineering; Heart failure refractory to medical therapy; Heart xenotransplantation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Potential pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the excessive growth of the pig heart transplanted into the baboon (orthotopic transplant). Possible causes include an immunological response against xenograft, a discrepancy in physiological parameters, and a discordant growth potential between donor and recipient species.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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