History of Xenotransplantation

Xenotransplantation, a subject of study and experimentation for almost a century, started to receive
serious attention from the scientific community in the 1960s as a result of strides made in human-to-
human transplantation. Between 1963 and 1993, 31 clinical procedures involving transplantation of solid
organs from animal donors were performed in the United States and South Africa. These were
extraordinary events. Physicians performed these operations as bridges to maintain life while awaiting a
human donor organ.

The first experiments in transplanting chimpanzee kidneys into humans were conducted in 1963 and
1964. One of the patients who received chimpanzee kidneys lived for nine months.

Two of the most publicized xenotransplant operations in the last two decades involved Baby Fae, the
infant who received a baboon heart in 1984, and Jeff Getty, an AIDS patient who received a bone marrow
transplant from a baboon in 1995. Baby Fae lived with her xenotransplant for 20 days, while Getty
rejected the transplanted marrow almost immediately. As of October 1998, Getty remained free of
baboon-transmitted viruses and showed no signs of baboon bone marrow in his system.

Researchers are currently experimenting with pigs as sources of organs and tissues for
xenotransplantation. Studies include the use of pancreatic islet cells and neural cells from pigs for
insulin-dependent diabetes and refractory parkinsonism, as well as perfusion of a patient’s fluids
through a pig liver situated outside the patient’s body as a temporary strategy to treat liver failure.
Patients with Huntington’s disease, which is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by
uncontrolled movement and mental deterioration, also are receiving modified tissues from pigs as an
experimental treatment. These studies are still very preliminary in testing the safety and effectiveness of
this promising treatment.

Ethical issues surrounding Xenotransplantation

In addition to the critically important potential public health issues in xenotransplantation, there are a
number of ethical issues that should be addressed. These include: deciding upon the fairest way to
allocate donor animal organs in a society where thousands of people die while waiting for a transplant;
deciding whether or not persons who receive xenografts may be compelled to participate in long term
follow-up programs because of the theoretical public health risk from endogenous viruses; developing a
carefully constructed ethics concerning the creation and care of those animals that will be created to
serve as donors; determining when and under what circumstances children and infants may be
considered as recipients of xenografts; and studying the potential emotional impact on people of having
had their lives prolonged with donor animal organs.

It would be naive to think that all these and other ethical issues will be resolved in advance of the
technological readiness to attempt animal to human xenografts. However, it is crucial that those in the
biotechnology industry who are working in this area help to initiate and sustain an ongoing public
dialogue on these and related issues. BIO is committed to assisting in this process.