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How and when will cardiac xenotransplantation enter the clinic? The recurrent debate has gained in realism

Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine volume 2, pages 550–551 (2005)Cite this article

The use of animal organs and tissues to benefit humanity is a recurrent theme. The first human kidney xenograft using goat tissue was performed in 1903 by Jaboulay. Xenotransplantation research has slowly evolved from sporadic research to more-structured, planned investigations because of the organ shortage that limits the development of allotransplantation. Approximately 2,000 heart transplants are performed annually in the US, but 500 patients die before a heart becomes available.1 The use of organs donated after death is associated with much controversy, underlining the need for alternative organ sources. Access to an unlimited source of long-term functioning organs from animals would be a major advance. The road to clinical xenotransplantation, however, is likely to be long. This viewpoint examines the possibility of xenotransplantation with the tools currently available.

Why is successful xenotransplantation proving to be so difficult? There are three main obstacles to be overcome: the reconciliation of complex molecular interactions between species that have independently diverged for millions of years; gaining public acceptance by communicating to the general public the expected benefit and how risks will be controlled; and safety. This challenge is intimately related to the development of artificial organs and, for certain indications, stem-cell research.

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  1. J-P Soulillou: He is also Director of Unit 643 of INSERM.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the head of the Institut de Transplantation et de Recherche en Transplantation (ITERT) at the University of Nantes, France

    Jean-Paul Soulillou

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  1. Jean-Paul Soulillou
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Correspondence to Jean-Paul Soulillou.

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Soulillou, JP. How and when will cardiac xenotransplantation enter the clinic? The recurrent debate has gained in realism. Nat Rev Cardiol 2, 550–551 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpcardio0369

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