XENO LUNG TRANSPLANT

Every year, thousands of patients worldwide die on the waiting list for a human donor organ. To counteract the underlying shortage of organ donors, efforts are being made to provide animal organs for human transplant patients. Corresponding transplantation efforts of organs across the species border of different species is called xenotransplantation. From a purely technical point of view, the transfer of animal tissues or organs to a human recipient is possible without any problems, provided that the corresponding graft corresponds in size, shape and physiology to the human structure to be replaced. This is the case, for example, when using porcine organs - provided that the donor pig is the right size. However, as soon as the xenogeneic transplant comes into contact with the blood of the human recipient after implantation, an extremely violent immune reaction occurs. This exceeds by far the immune response to be expected in the context of an analogous allotransplantation and consists on the one hand of cellular and humoral rejection mechanisms and on the other hand of an excessive activation of the blood coagulation system of the recipient. Both aspects have not yet been fully explored. However, a detailed understanding as well as a reliable overcoming of these hurdles in the sense of the many patients who would be enabled to live a long and symptom-free life by the safe provision of a completely functional and healthy animal donor organ has become absolutely essential and thus the declared goal of our working group!