Xenotransplantation is a concept which originated a century back. It involves the transport of animal tissues and organs into human beings if there is need to replace a certain organ or to cure a disease. Back then it was considered morally provocative to commit such scientific experiments but now this practice is more in process.
Nowadays, it is considered to be an ‘efficient method’ to solve the critical problem of organ unavailability. Patients today need a considerate amount of organ Transplantations, kidney being the highest; adding to the list are Liver, Heart, Lungs, and Brain.
The Inadequate Availability of Human Donors
- One human can save up to 8 lives but the person has to be dead in order to donate.
- Not everyone decides to donate and most importantly not everybody is healthy enough to give their organs. This challenge creates a huge problem and it is one of the major concerns in the field of contemporary medicine.
- The department of health faces a grave challenge to tackle the issue of organ failure which is not a big problem if an organ is present beforehand to replace the damaged one.
The Background of Xenotransplantation
The demand for animal tissues and organs is increasing day by day. Lately, a few experiments have been carried out in the US and Europe. These trials are largely used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease using Pig fetal neural cells. A similar action was being processed in New Zealand, which, after some altercations is now being conducted in Mexico.
The First Successful Transplantation
Xenotransplantation started in 1963 with the successful transplantation of a chimpanzee kidney into thirteen humans. Only one out of the 13 patients survived for almost nine months and died of a different cause. These kinds of experiments have been conducted largely over the past 50 years and all have received mixed outcomes.
Obstacles circling Xenotransplantation
There were some key obstacles that came to light during the research and experimentation. Below are a vast number of challenges that include infectious disease dangers and the requirement of monitoring for longer periods of time.
- Organs of Primates
Animal tissues of Primates are eluded for these kinds of trials to avoid the risk of viruses, the reason being their close relationship to human anatomy.
- Failure to Recognize Animal Tissue
The main obstacle founded during animal biological research was that human body refused to recognize animal tissues and attacked them, considering them as ‘foreign’ and dangerous.
- No Trivial Recovery
Another concern is when operated; the human body did not heal completely and in some cases showed little signs of significant success.
- Campaigns against Xenotransplantation
Beyond all this, animal activists are always in front to raise their voice against using animals for human organ failure treatment.
Advantages of Xenotransplantation
According to Animal Biological Research, a large population of people ignores the fact that there is plenty of uses and advantages of inserting animal tissues or organs. Apart from treating organ failure, it can be used to cure diabetes and permanently eliminating some life-threatening diseases.
Xenotransplantation as a Dire Necessity
Modern medicine needs to expand the possibility of using Animal tissues as a source of transplantation because with changing times, it is going to become a pivotal need. With a limited number of human donors and Healthy organs, the practice of using animal tissues will soon become the first priority of most medical personnel.
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