HOW ANIMALS CAN SAVE US: PART 3: LIFE-SAVING PIGS
In the 1960's, surgeons experimented by transplanting chimpanzee organs into humans in need of an organ transplant. In 1985, Baby Fae received a baboon heart and survived 20 days. Since then, doctors have continued to look to animals as a source for organs, tissues and cells to treat various diseases -- all with varying degrees of success. There is controversy surrounding cross-species transplant -- also known as xenotransplantation.
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Dick Beyer has Parkinson's.
Dick Beyer
"I move in slow motion."
Betsy Ray has diabetes.
Betsy Ray
Has diabetes
"I've got retinopathy in my eyes. I have cataracts."
George Jones has kidney failure.
George Jones
Suffers from kidney failure
"I guess if it wasn't for dialysis, I wouldn't be here."
What do these diseases have in common? Some doctors predict pigs will cure them.
Marlon Levy, M.D.
Transplant Surgeon
Baylor All Saints Medical Center
Fort Worth, TX
"The holy grail of all this is a pig whose organs are not recognized as pig organs but rather are seen essentially to have tissues that our immune system thinks is human tissue."
Five years ago Marlon Levy used pig livers to do the job two patients' livers could not.
Marlon Levy, M.D.
"The ending of this story is that both of these patients are doing remarkably well today."
That's not enough to reassure activist Alix Fano.
Alix Fano
Executive Director
Campaign for Responsible Transplantation
New York, NY
"We know that since the early 1990s about 16 people have died in human xenotransplantation trials. There have been patients in Parkinson's disease trials who have had pig cells injected into their brains who have come down with malignant cancers."
But no research has been done to show a link, and scientists are expanding their research. Pig cells are now being studied for strokes, epilepsy and huntington's disease. And doctors from Mexico recently transplanted pig islet cells into 12 diabetic children. Doctors say one is off insulin and the others reduced their insulin requirement by more than 60 percent. All this research gives Fano more reason to worry.
Alix Fano
"We do know that patients who have been exposed to pig cells and tissues do have pig DNA circulating in their blood, and that means they most certainly have pig viruses in their blood as well."
It's these viruses that concern her most.
Alix Fano
"We're talking about putting the entire population at risk from a pig virus that could mutate and spread and kill lots of other people."
Biotech companies are working to eliminate that. They're breeding pigs they say do not pass on the perv virus --the one deemed most dangerous to humans.
Elliot Lebowitz, Ph.D.
President/CEO Biotransplant Incorporated
Charlestown, MA
"We know that at the end of the day if we're successful we'll do something really important."
Infection control nurse betsy todd also worries about the future.
Betsy Todd, R.N.
Infection Control Nurse
New York City, NY
"Retroviruses like HIV or like PERV are by their very nature latent viruses. They take many years often before they can cause active infection."
While it may be too early for species to share organs, researchers continue their work -- hoping to give patients a second chance at life.
Doctor levy says lack of funding remains the main reason the research is going so slowly. Researchers also say cloned pigs may play an important role in xenotransplantation and this is even more controversial.
BACKGROUND: Nearly 83,000 Americans are currently on the list waiting for an organ transplant. Parkinson's disease affects about 1.5 million people in the United States. About 17 million people in the United States have diabetes. What do these diseases have in common? Some experts say animals, most likely pigs, could be the answer to treating these conditions. Xenotransplant, or cross-species transplantation, may offer a source of organs for people in need of transplants. For people with Parkinson's, pig cells transplanted into the brain could help people regain mobility lost to the disease. And for diabetics, islet cells from pigs could be what they need to get them off insulin.
PIG ORGANS: In 1997 and 1998, surgeon Marlon Levy, M.D., kept two patients alive using a pig liver outside the body to filter their blood and do the job their livers could not until an organ for transplant became available. Today, the patients are both alive and doing well with no sign of infection. Despite this, many opponents of xenotransplantation worry that organs from other animals will pass on diseases we don't even know about and could potentially put the entire population at risk from an infection that may not be treatable. For this reason, biotech groups such as Biotransplant, Inc., are working to develop pigs they say do not pass on the PERV virus to humans. The PERV, or porcine endogenous retrovirus, is the virus some say would be most dangerous to humans. In lab studies, when human kidney cells were exposed to the tissue from the genetically modified miniature swine, the virus was not passed on. For comparison in the study, cells from other pig lines were tested and were found to transmit the virus to both human and pig cells. The results of the study suggest that the miniature pigs do not contain copies of replication-competent PERV, meaning their organs would be safe to put into humans.
PIG CELLS FOR PARKINSON'S: Researchers say fetal pig cells may be the answer to treating people with Parkinson's disease. Treatment for Parkinson's traditionally has meant medications to reduce the amount of acetylcholine in the brain or to force the remaining cells to produce more dopamine than normal. In recent years, surgeries such as pallidotomy, thalamotomy and deep brain stimulation have reduced the symptoms of Parkinson's in patients who did not respond to drug therapy. These surgical procedures involve making lesions, or cuts, in specific parts of the brain in order to prevent the symptoms. With the cell transplantation, cells are taken from fetal, or unborn, developing, pigs and are transplanted into a human brain. These cells are primitive and are not fully developed. The goal is that once they are transplanted into the brain, they can develop into human brain cells and produce dopamine as functioning human brain cells would. Opponents to the research say people who have had the cells implanted have gone on to develop cancer in that area, but no research has been done to confirm or deny these accusations.
ISLET CELLS FOR DIABETICS: Last year, researchers from Mexico announced at the 19th International Congress of The Transplantation Society that studies using islet cells from pigs to treat diabetics was showing success. Twelve children ages 11 to 17 with type 1 diabetes had islet cells from pigs transplanted into them. At the conference, the lead author of the study announced none of the children showed any sign of disease from the pigs and one became insulin independent. The other five children who had successful transplantations needed only 60 percent to 80 percent of their insulin dosing.
Marlon Levy, M.D.
Transplant Surgeon
Baylor All Saints Medical Center
(817) 922-4650
Copyright © 2003 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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