Just as our car engines fail so to may our organs. Kidney, heart, and liver, just to name a few, may not function optimally to sustain the demands of life. The trouble with addressing these health concerns is less about the surgeon's dexterity in rewiring blood vessels, or availability of effective immunosuppressants. The real enemy is time, and your number on the waiting list. There are shortages of life-saving organs available for transplantation. Interestingly, this human problem does not necessarily require a human-based solution. Time for a history lesson!

Xenotransplantation, or the transfer of organs and tissues between different species, peaked humanity's curiosity for centuries. From frog-based skin grafts to chimpanzee testicle transplantations as the 1920s Viagra, the medical record of xenotransplantation runs deep. A fundamental issue with organ transplant between distinct species is compatibility. Failure may arise if either the recipient's immune system rejects the new organ or the administration of immunosuppressants dampens immune strength such that the body is left vulnerable to infection. Ultimately, different donors have different advantages. Nonhuman primates, think baboon or chimpanzee, have closely related immune systems to humans compared to other potential donors but suffer from limited supply, cost, and time to achieve organ size sufficient for transplantation. The cons for using nonhuman primate organs are the pros for other donors, specifically pig. These barnyard animals offer cheaper and more abundant organs for saving a human's life. The trade off: decreased compatibility. 

In this episode we discuss the use of genetically modified pig organs that have the potential to address organ shortages and improve the outcome of patients suffering from organ failures. The genetic modifications, or the select reprogramming of biological software, provide more compatible organs with a reduced risk of immune rejection once transplanted into a patient. While not FDA approved, the first wave of surgeries transplanting pig kidneys and hearts have been performed. The experimental results are optimistic, enough so that medical teams across the US are motivated to move the process forward towards clinical trials. We need novel solutions to combat organ shortages, otherwise more than a dozen patients on a transplant list will continue to die each day. In addition to genetically modified xenotransplantations, we discuss the role of regenerative medicine in providing an alternative approach to addressing the organ shortage without the use of animals. Instead of growing kidneys in a pig, one would grow them from cells in a lab. Just as consumers may one day embrace cultured meat, patients in need of a new heart may turn to accept a lab-built one. 

We really dive into this one. Hope you enjoy!