Pig heart kept beating inside baboon for more than two years

[Plazma Inferno!]

A team of German and American scientists recently announced an organ transplant breakthrough. The researchers were able to keep a pig heart beating inside a baboon for more than two years.
The body's immune system complicates cross-species organ transplants. Often, the recipient's body rejects the new organ. But scientists used genetic engineering and immunosuppression drugs to keep the baboons from rejecting the pig heart.
Hearts were sourced from a line of pigs genetically engineered to be more compatible with the baboon's immune system. A special regimen of drugs and antibodies ensured the primate's immune system wouldn't overreact.
As part of the experiment, five baboons got five pig hearts. The recipients' hearts weren't replaced. The pig hearts were simply hooked up to the circulatory system, while the baboons' own hearts continues to pump blood.
The pig hearts kept beating for an average of 945 days.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/201...baboon-for-more-than-two-years/8431459888294/

 

[origin]

Am I the only one that thinks putting pigs hearts in baboons is a little creepy?

 

[Billy T]

Am I the only one that thinks putting pigs hearts in baboons is a little creepy?

Perhaps, but I don't. I was the guest of the rabbi as my best friend in high school was his son, Amiel, for a month fishing in Canada. I hated good fishing on friday afternoons, as only I could clean the fish caught by two small boats of fisher men. One day, not a Friday, a huge muskie was caught and its heart was still beating. So Amiel and I but it in saline water, we judged to be as salty as blood and continued our fish cleaning task. It was still beating regularly when we went to sleep. Even the next moring, it would occasionally contract. I told Amiel we should have put a little sugar in the water too - poor thing needed energy to keep its regular beating going.