Recent advances in porcine cardiac xenotransplantation: from aortic valve replacement to heart transplantation

Introduction: Cardiac xenotransplantation presents significant potential to the field of heart failure by addressing the high demand for donor organs. The availability of xenograft hearts would substantially augment the number of life-saving organs available to patients and may ultimately liberalize eligibility criteria for transplantation.

Areas covered: In this review, we will discuss the need for cardiac xenotransplantation and the history of research and clinical practice in this field. Specifically, we address immunologic concepts and clinical lessons learned from heart valve replacement using xenogeneic tissues, the advancement of xenotransplantation using organs from genetically modified animals, and the progression of this research to the first-in-man pig-to-human heart transplantation.

Expert opinion: Cardiac xenotransplantation holds tremendous promise, but the indications for this new treatment in adults will need to be clearly defined because mechanical support with ventricular assist devices and total artificial hearts are increasingly successful alternatives in heart failure. Cardiac xenotransplantation will also serve as temporary bridge to allotransplantation in babies with complex congenital heart disease who are too small for the currently available mechanical assist devices and total artificial hearts. Moreover, xenotransplantation of the part of the heart containing a heart valve could deliver growing heart valve implants for babies with severe heart valve dysfunction.