When organ transplantation became possible it was a instant hit. Physicians everywhere were putting their patients on the transplant list. There are three main problems I want to address when it comes to this. The first downside of this is the donor organ must be the proper match for the individual, which more often than not donor and recipient are not a positive match. The second downside to be noted is the transplants lists are so long that people often wait months and even years they may not have in order to get a organ. And finally, the third downside I find is patients on the list basically need to wait for a person to be in a horrific motor vehicle crash, or some other fatal injury in order to receive said organ. So besides standing in a ER like the Grim Reaper, waiting to harvest the organs out of a person, a solution, or at least the beginning stages of a solution have been developed. This solution is called Xenotransplantation. It's a long word but don't be afraid. Xenotransplantation is transplanting the organs from one species to another species and is very effective between animals that are genetically similar. In this case Humans and our bacony friends, the pigs. The process of using pig heart valves to replace human heart valves has already had massive success in the medical field. Just imagine if using Xenotransplantation became standard practice and allowed for all kinds of swine organs such as lungs, kidneys, livers, even entire hearts to be transplanted into people, the long transplant waiting list can drastically be cut! Tens of thousands of lives can be positively affected by Xenotransplantation and inter-species organ transplants can completely revolutionize the healthcare system! Who would have thought the answer to the great organ shortage would be Bacon?
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Could Bacon Be The Answer To Organ Shortage?
When organ transplantation became possible it was a instant hit. Physicians everywhere were putting their patients on the transplant list. There are three main problems I want to address when it comes to this. The first downside of this is the donor organ must be the proper match for the individual, which more often than not donor and recipient are not a positive match. The second downside to be noted is the transplants lists are so long that people often wait months and even years they may not have in order to get a organ. And finally, the third downside I find is patients on the list basically need to wait for a person to be in a horrific motor vehicle crash, or some other fatal injury in order to receive said organ. So besides standing in a ER like the Grim Reaper, waiting to harvest the organs out of a person, a solution, or at least the beginning stages of a solution have been developed. This solution is called Xenotransplantation. It's a long word but don't be afraid. Xenotransplantation is transplanting the organs from one species to another species and is very effective between animals that are genetically similar. In this case Humans and our bacony friends, the pigs. The process of using pig heart valves to replace human heart valves has already had massive success in the medical field. Just imagine if using Xenotransplantation became standard practice and allowed for all kinds of swine organs such as lungs, kidneys, livers, even entire hearts to be transplanted into people, the long transplant waiting list can drastically be cut! Tens of thousands of lives can be positively affected by Xenotransplantation and inter-species organ transplants can completely revolutionize the healthcare system! Who would have thought the answer to the great organ shortage would be Bacon?
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This was beyond interesting! I knew for a long time that using pig heart valves is wildly popular as an alternative for transplants. However, it is really refreshing to read about the expansion of "how and what" is used to complete them. Hopefully we can utilize this research and oncoming revolution to save lives!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate, glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteI find this very interesting. I have never heard about this and reading it was something new. I understand the part about having to wait the long process for an organ and finding out it may or may not match. I also find it quite strange that we could have an animals organ save our life. Never have we thought about this before. For me, I find it strange if I were to ever think I had a pig heart or such inside of me, but knowing that I was able to get a transplant would be something people would not take for granted.
ReplyDeleteWow. What a strange post! Strange and fascinating. I have heard about ground pig organs used to make a powder that can help create new tissues for humans -- it's been used to help re-grow tissues in the limbs of wounded war vets, for example. I don't have a link, but it's related. Cool stuff!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the title I had no idea where this was going to go. But this is just awesome. I've never heard about Xenotransplantation but its good to know that there is another way for people to get organs other than waiting for someone to get in accident! One more reason to love bacon !
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