Xenotransplantation

Xenotransplantation: Transplantation from one species to a foreign one. The rationale for xenotransplantation has included the short supply of human organs for transplantation.

The first surgeon to do an animal-to-human heart transplant was Dr. James D. Hardy. After doing the first human lung transplant in 1963, Hardy did the first animal-to-human heart transplant in 1964 at the University of Mississippi. The transplant involving a chimpanzee heart was done three years before the first human-heart transplant (by Christiaan Barnard).

Perhaps the most famous case of cross-species transplantation was that of a heart from a baboon to Baby Fae in 1984, performed by Dr. Leonard Bailey at Loma Linda University, California. Baby Fae lived for 20 days after the operation.

The first to show that nonhuman organs could be transplanted to humans and function for a significant period of time was Dr. Keith Reemtsma (1925-2000). At Tulane University in New Orleans Dr. Reemtsma in 1963 and 1964 gave chimpanzee kidneys to 5 patients in the first chimpanzee-to-human transplants. The recipients died (of infection) from 8 to 63 days after receiving a chimpanzee kidney. Then, in 1964 Reemtsma transplanted a kidney from a chimpanzee to a 23-year-old teacher. She lived with it for 9 months until succumbing to overwhelming infection.

The prefix "xeno-" means foreign. It comes from the Greek word "xenos" meaning stranger, guest, or host. (Xenophobia is fear of foreigners). Xenotransplantation is synonymous with cross-species transplantation.