What is xenotransplantation?

In news– Recently the doctors in the USA transplanted a genetically altered pig heart into a patient which is referred to as xenotransplantation (from animals to humans).

More information on xenotransplantation-

Xenotransplantation is any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of either live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex-vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs.
Such cells, tissues or organs are called xenografts or xenotransplants.

Xenotransplantation of human tumor cells into immunocompromised mice is a research technique frequently used in pre-clinical oncology research.
Human xenotransplantation offers a potential treatment for end-stage organ failure, a significant health problem in parts of the industrialized world.
It also raises many novel medical, legal and ethical issues.

Some of the examples of xenotransplantation

In 1921, Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best extracted insulin from dogs for the first time.
In the years that followed, experts began extracting this hormone from the pancreas of pigs and cows.
In September 1965, scientists successfully replaced the aortic valve in a human with a porcine one for the first time.
Heparin, is an anticoagulant that keeps blood clots from forming during surgery and is sourced from pigs.
In 1984, a human infant received a heart from a baboon, but she died 21 days after the transplant.
In 1997, two surgeons — Dr Dhani Ram Baruah, a transplant surgeon from Assam, and Dr Jonathan Ho Kei-Shing, a Hong Kong surgeon conducted a pig-to-human heart and lung transplant in Guwahati on a 32-year-old farmer, Purno Saikia.
However, the transplantation was not successful.
In 2017, Scientists had developed a human-pig hybrid by growing human cells inside early-stage pig embryos in the lab.
In 2017, Chinese surgeons reportedly transplanted pig cornea to restore sight in a human.
In 2019, experts from the US announced that live cell, genetically engineered pig skin could temporarily close a burn wound.
In 2020, US experts attached a genetically-altered kidney to a brain-dead person and monitored the new organ for the next 54 hours.
The next breakthrough was the latest pig-heart transplant that was granted authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration after reviewing experimental data.