Xenotransplantation: What Makes It Special and Rare?

It would seem extraordinary and strange to hear that humans have the capability to receive transplants from nonhuman tissues, organs, and cells like pigs, but it is actually not as strange as people may believe it to be. It is actually well known and possible. However, how does it work? In our modern world today, many people are stuck in a waiting list waiting for organ transplants to become available, and in most cases, they do not have the luxury of waiting for available organs to replace the ones that are not working well for them. This brings in the topic of xenotransplantation. 

Xenotransplantation is the procedure of transplanting or implanting nonhuman organs, cells, or tissues like pig hearts, which are very similar to human organs, cells, and tissues and can be replaced with them. However, this procedure is very rare and can be very dangerous when used. Additionally, there are many risks that come with the procedure. For example, infection. Infection is a common issue that comes with it as there can be infectious agents that will try to harm the other cells and organs of the human body when the transplant is completed. Another risk of xenotransplantation was the cross-species infection of retroviruses. Retroviruses are a kind of virus that are latent and can lead to disease after years of having an infection in your body after a transplant. For these reasons, having a xenotransplantation is a risky gamble and a procedure that is very rare to be done. 

Although the procedure has a very low number of cases being done, it is known that the transplants were actually pretty successful for people without brain function. According to the national kidney foundation, the kidney transplant had worked normally filtering blood and making blood. Additionally, it was known that the body had also accepted the new kidney without fighting against it and rejecting it. On the other hand, there are also cases where patients who are in need of non-human organ transplants have died from the transplant. For example, David Bennett, who had suffered from diseases and resulted in his death after getting a non-human heart transplant. In Bennett’s situation, it is believed that the heart transplant had transferred a disease to his body and caused his death. Therefore, there are actually several risks that come with the transplants of different organs like kidneys. 

However, these kidneys are not similar to normal pig kidneys, but are actually biologically modified pig kidneys. These kidneys are modified as a solution to the way that our immune systems would fight back against the sugars that a pig’s kidney has. Therefore, scientists would remove certain pig genes that would be unbeneficial to the human body once it would be transplanted. In addition to the removal, scientists would also add certain human genes that humans have in order to improve the compatibility between humans and the pig kidney. Thus, there are actually several cases where xenotransplants work well, but there are still many different risks that come with it. 

Ultimately, scientists eventually establish solutions to many different problems. For instance, one of these problems are the long waiting lists for people who are in need of organ transplants. One solution that people came up with for this problem was xenotransplantations. Xenotransplantations were the transplant that patients would receive from non-human cells, organs, or tissues like pigs. However, there were actually many risks that had come with the transplant. Some risks had included infection and rejection of the new organ. Nonetheless, this procedure is very rare and is only done as a last resort. Consequently, this is what makes xenotransplantations rare and special.

Written by Connie Ma at Incisionary

References

Cooper, D. K., Ekser, B., & Tector, A. J. (2015b). A brief history of clinical xenotransplantation. International Journal of Surgery, 23, 205–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2015.06.060

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Harvard Medical School. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://hms.harvard.edu/news/first-genetically-edited-pig-kidney-transplanted-human

What is xenotransplantation, and how far away is it? (2025, February 19). UNOS. Retrieved August 20, 2025, from https://unos.org/news/what-is-xenotransplantation-and-how-far-away-is-it/

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