What is the process of Xenotransplantation?
Xenotransplantation is the process of transplanting an organ or tissue from one species to a different one. The advantage is that if the process were perfected, then we’d have a convenient supply of organs for transplant into humans, for example from pigs (because they are similar to humans in size), instead of waiting for one from another human. The challenge is in how to handle rejection, which is when the recipient’s immune system attacks the transplanted organ and destroys it (because it is different, the recipient body sees the organ as a bunch of invading cells). Even between humans, with careful genetic matching, unless the donor and recipient are identical twins, there is still an immune response, and the recipient must be immunosuppressed for the transplant to work. When it is a different species, the immune response is much, much greater, and at the moment, we don’t have a way to control this without compromising the health of the recipient to an unacceptable level. Therefore
