Cross-Species Transplants Nearing Reality?

2 April 1995

There is an unquestioned need for more organs to become available for transplantation, largely because the supply of donors is not keeping pace with advances in medical technology - increasing expertise means that many patients previously considered too vulnerable to transplant can now be transplanted with confidence.

Overall, the demand for organs is growing by 15% a year, and has doubled since 1988. However, during this period the donor rate has remained static, or even declined in some countries. For example, in the UK there are almost 6,000 people currently on the waiting list for organs, and in the USA this figure is nearer 30,000. And these figures underestimate the size of the problem as far more people could potentially benefit from transplantation but are not considered eligible under the stringent criteria set up to cope with the shortfall of donor organs.

One approach to the problem has been to investigate the use of non-human donor organs or xenotransplants. The hope is that animal organs can be modified to be suitable for transplantation into humans, thereby providing an almost unlimited supply to save the lives of the thousands of patients who die each year waiting for treatment.

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