Dr. Robert Montgomery's unique experiment

- Future Science-KR Chowdhury

The legend of transplanting animal organs has been told in our Hindu scriptures since pre-Chinese times. He did not invite his daughter Sati and son-in-law Mahadev to the yajna performed by Prajapati Daksha. However, Sati had gone to attend her father's yajna. There Sati and her son-in-law Mahadev were severely insulted by Daksha. The humiliated Sati finally offered her sacrifice in the Yajnakunda and took a fire bath. Upon hearing this news, Mahadev was furious. The angry and terrifying form of Mahadev is known as 'Virbhadra'.

By Virbhadra i.e. Mahadev, Prajapati was beheaded in the Yajnakunda by separating the head from the torso of Daksha. He was then resurrected by arranging a goat's head on the torso of Prajapati Daksha. There have been experiments in modern times to attribute animal organs to human beings.

In India, Dhaniram Barua, a doctor from Assam, used the heart of a pig for a heart transplant in a human body. The government sentenced him to 15 days in prison for the experiment. Such an event prevents doctors from doing new experiments. Recently, Dr. Robert Montgomery of New York University in the United States made a new history in the medical world by implanting a genetically engineered pig / pig kidney in the human body. Has created a new optimism for kidney patients.

Implantation of genetically engineered pig kidney in human body

Lack of human organs: look at animal organs

About 15,000 patients in the United States have registered for various organ transplants. Out of which more than 30,000 people are waiting for kidney donation. But only about forty thousand of them have received various human organs. Three million people in China are waiting on the transplant list. While only about 2000 organs are available to them every year. In Britain, 2,100 patients are waiting for various organs. Of these, 4.5 patients are suffering from kidney problems. This situation shows that ‘if an animal’s organs are obtained from another animal by genetic modification in the laboratory. If it is then implanted in the human body, the need for different organs of the patients and the problem of transplantation can be solved.

With the development of genetic engineering and technology, the number of cases of transplantation of animal organs in human body, especially pig / pig organ, has increased. In addition, the human body was immune to foreign organs. With the discovery of new medical remedies and herbs to control it, a new direction and door has opened for 'xenotransplantation'. There has been a recent incident in medical history that deserves special attention.

For the first time in the history of transplantation, an American doctor has experimented with transplanting a pig, a pig's kidney, into a human. In the body of a brain dead patient in New York, the results have been tested by implanting a pig's kidney. This experiment has been performed before removing the patient's life support system. The pig’s kidney was attached to the patient’s body by blood vessels for three days. The pig’s kidney was kept out of the patient’s body.

Animal Organ Transplantation: Modern History

Attempts were made to transfuse the blood of various animals into humans, first seeing the symptoms of the patient's disease. In 17 CE, there were experiments in transfusing sheep's blood into humans. In the 19th century, frogs were used to burn and injure people. To sustain youth in old age, Dr. Vironoff recommended the chimpanzee's testicular cells to be arranged in humans. The doctor believed that 'due to the hormones produced in the testicles, the libido of the old man will be aroused again and again. Blood vessels and organs of the ape family, made by the French physician Alexis Carell, are known to be used in the human body.

A chimpanzee kidney was transplanted into 17 patients by American physician Keith Rimatsama. The kidneys functioned in a person's body for nine months. Dr. The first human heart transplant was performed by James Hardy on January 6, 19 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "The recipient was a 70-year-old man, but the donor was a chimpanzee," he wrote. The patient died 1 hour after the acute rejection.

The chimpanzee's liver was implanted in the human body by Dr. Thomas Starzel in the 19th century. He had implanted the liver of a baboon monkey in the body of a 14-year-old patient. The patient then lived for 30 days. In 19th South Africa, Christian Bernard became world famous after the first successful human heart transplant. A decade later he tried to use chimpanzee hearts to support unstable human patients. He soon abandoned this method.

In 19, Dr. Barnard wrote about his discomfort in using chimpanzees. "They have vowed never to do it again," he said. If we talk about the two most famous xenotransplant operations in the last two decades, the first operation took place in 19. In which Baby Fan was implanted with a Baboon Heart. And in another operation on the 19th, Jeff Getty, an AIDS patient, had a bone marrow transplant from a baboon monkey. Which became a topic of discussion in the medical world.

Dr. Robert Montgomery's unique experiment

On September 3, for a three-hour study period, New York University researchers performed a kidney transplant in a two-hour xenotransplant procedure. This kidney was obtained from a genetically engineered pig. The engineered pig kidney was placed in a brain dead human. Who was placed on a ventilator with the consent of his family. The kidney was attached to the blood vessels in the patient's upper leg and placed outside the abdomen. A special kind of protective shield was placed over the kidney so that it would not be damaged. The experiment was performed at New York University's Langone Health Center. The pig genes were changed in the laboratory. In addition, the molecules that initiate the biological process of immediate rejection in the human body were removed. The leader of the experiment team believes that 'by removing the carbohydrate-producing gene in the pig's body, the biological phenomenon of its rejection in the human body will stop. A sugar molecule or glycan, called an alpha-gale. That would solve the problem. ' To do this, a pig's fetus was raised in the womb of the mercenary mother. Her mother then gave birth to a piglet. The thymus gland, located in the upper part of the lungs, produces white blood cells. If the thymus gland is transplanted along with the kidney, the long-term rejection of the foreign organ by the human body's immune system can be prevented. Doctors linked the pig's kidney and thymus gland to the patient's thigh blood vessels. So that monitoring the patient and renal function can be made easier.

A bright hope for the future

For the past decade researchers have been experimenting with transplanting various animal organs into humans but as the biological process of its rejection by the body has become more active, such experiments have not had much success. In December 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of genetically modified pork, known as GullSafe, as a potential source of human cure and as food for people with meat allergies. In this experiment, the researchers, after consulting with medical, ethicists, legal and religious experts, obtained permission from the family to temporarily implant a pig kidney on the body of a brain dead patient. The test results of this transplant kidney function 'looked like the kidneys of a normal human being', said Dr. who led the study. Said Robert Montgomery. He said, "The kidneys of a pig produce as much urine as the kidneys of a normal human being." The creatinine level in the patient / recipient's body was found to be abnormal before the experiment. Which indicates renal failure. After this experiment, the level of creatinine reached normal levels. Which demonstrates the success of this experiment. Scientists believe that this type of medical treatment can be given temporarily and for a short period of time, unless the patient finds a human kidney as a solution to a permanent problem.

Dr. "His experiments will prove to be a blessing in disguise for patients who have reached the final stage of kidney failure," Montgomery said. This type of medical treatment will also be available to the general public in the next one to two years. Doctor Montgomery then wants to do pig heart transplant experiments. He says he will do the first experiment on a pig heart transplant on his own.