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Review
. 2023 Jul 10:2:1125047.
doi: 10.3389/frtra.2023.1125047. eCollection 2023.

The history of cardiac xenotransplantation: early attempts, major advances, and current progress

Nicholas R Hess  1 , David J Kaczorowski  1   2
Affiliations
Review

The history of cardiac xenotransplantation: early attempts, major advances, and current progress

Nicholas R Hess et al. Front Transplant. .

Abstract

In light of ongoing shortage of donor organs for transplantation, alternative sources for donor organ sources have been examined to address this supply-demand mismatch. Of these, xenotransplantation, or the transplantation of organs across species, has been considered, with early applications dating back to the 1600s. The purpose of this review is to summarize the early experiences of xenotransplantation, with special focus on heart xenotransplantation. It aims to highlight the important ethical concerns of animal-to-human heart xenotransplantation, identify the key immunological barriers to successful long-term xenograft survival, as well as summarize the progress made in terms of development of pharmacological and genetic engineering strategies to address these barriers. Lastly, we discuss more recent attempts of porcine-to-human heart xenotransplantation, as well as provide some commentary on the current concerns and possible applications for future clinical heart xenotransplantation.

Keywords: baboon; genetic engineering; heart–heart transplantation; history; pig; transplant; xenotransplant.

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Conflict of interest statement

DJK declared that he was an editorial board member of Frontiers at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer ES declared a past co-authorship with the author DJK to the handling editor.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of significant events in the development of heart xenotransplantation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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