The New York Times Magazine took an in-depth look on October 3 at issues related to pig-to-human xenotransplantation.
The article covers the efforts of Nextran of Princeton, New Jersey, and Imutran of Cambridge, England, to create transgenic pigs and, the companies hope, to eventually transplant some of the pigs' organs into people. It also discusses the ongoing concern that pig viruses can be transmitted to people. From a human interest point of view, writer Sheryl Gay Stolberg also traces the story of a 19-year-old man with fulminant liver failure whose life was saved in 1997 after he underwent extracorporeal perfusion at Baylor University Medical Center. During the perfusion, Robert Pennington's blood was circulated through the liver of one of Nextran's pigs until a donated liver was located later the same day.
For Your Information:
The New York Times Magazine:
www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/19991003mag-pig-transplants.html
Free registration is required.CNN:
www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9910/03/liver.dialysis
A similar, but less detailed, story by writer Rhonda Rowland.
Please be aware that medical advice, diagnoses and physician references cannot be obtained from this site.