Xenotransplantation最新文献

Pigs have been utilized as the donor animal for xenotransplantation, a promising solution to the continued shortage of organ donor. However, porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV), a gamma retrovirus present in all pig genomes, remains a major concern for the microbiological safety of donor pigs. Therefore, accurately assessing the risk of PERV infection is essential for the clinical application of xenotransplantation. To improve the evaluation of PERV infectivity, here we developed a new in vitro co-culture method for porcine and human cells, applying flowcytometric cell sorter for specific isolation of human cells. This method allows direct contact between porcine and human cells without special treatment that would affect PERV replication, which is better simulating the situation observed in in vivo xenotransplantation. Using this method, we identified several possible factors affecting PERV infectivity, including the period during which porcine and human cells are in contact, the number of porcine cells used, and the levels of PERV mRNA expression in porcine cells. Notably, we found that the PERV infection of human cells can occur within the first 24 h of contact if porcine cells are of a high-risk type for PERV infection, which is not confirmed by any types of conventional co-culture methods. Our result emphasized the importance of selecting appropriate donor pigs with lower risk of PERV infection. Our newly developed method may help the testing and selection of pigs with lower risk of PERV infection.

From January to June 2025, the field of xenotransplantation progressed rapidly toward clinical translation, with landmark compassionate-use cases, peer-reviewed reports of porcine kidney, heart, and liver transplants in humans, and the release of authoritative international guidelines. This literature update summarizes key developments across clinical trials, immunological insights, donor engineering, preservation strategies, infection control, and ethical frameworks, highlighting a growing consensus on the scientific and regulatory roadmap for safe, effective, and equitable xenotransplantation.

Background: Solid organ xenotransplantation has been approved for clinical trials in the United States. Because of the role of nurses in patient decision-making, it is important to understand the attitudes of the future nursing workforce toward xenotransplantation. This pilot study aimed to investigate the attitudes of adult nursing students toward xenotransplantation.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used. The online pilot survey was completed by 33 undergraduate adult nursing students at one university in London, England. A minority of the hospitals that students may have had a clinical placement in had a transplant unit. The protocol for this study was reviewed and approved by the university research ethics panel.

Results: Fifty-two percent of students viewed xenotransplantation positively when the risks and outcomes were equal to allotransplantation. Students were most positive toward accepting a liver from an animal source and the most negative toward accepting a heart. There was limited concern about the potential psychosocial effects of xenotransplantation. Students believed that xenotransplantation involved several risks, including immunologic, infection, and raising religious, ethical, and philosophical problems.

Conclusion: While participants had a moderately positive view toward xenotransplantation when the risks and outcomes were equal to allotransplantation-this dropped significantly if it produced worse outcomes. Their primary concerns about xenotransplantation were its potential infection risks as well as the ethical, philosophical, and religious problems it raises. The fact that the source organs are genetically engineered made students view xenotransplantation more favorably.

Xenotransplantation is becoming an emerging field of interest for the treatment of end-stage heart disease. In fact, the shortage of human heart donors in European countries requires the increasing investigation of alternative strategies such as heart xenotransplantation. Among different limitations in this peculiar field, the experimental pharmacological management of patients who undergo heart xenotransplantation is primarily narrowed by the indications for which these drugs have been previously authorized by international medicines agencies. In fact, many of these medications have been never authorized for transplant rejection therapy, or for xenotransplantation, but their mechanism of action might stop the molecular pathways which are involved in xenograft antibody-mediated rejection. Additionally, drugs costs and supply can restrict their availability for xenotransplantation practice. The aim of this review is to describe the current drugs which have been used in the clinical cases of heart xenotransplantation performed to date, to analyze the indications for which they are authorized, and to evaluate the future medications which might be implemented in heart xenotransplantation field, with a particular focus on the European scenario.