I can extract side effects - Chapter 652

c648 A human heart beats in a monkey’s chest

Kunming, Animal Experiment Center.

In the operating room, a shocking organ transplant operation is going on.

On the two operating tables in the center, a piglet is lying on one side and a macaque is lying on the other.

Both animals, similar in size, were anesthetized and fell into a peaceful slumber.

There was a dense circle of people around the operating table, all of whom were medical staff from the experimental center and project personnel from Sanqing.

At this moment, all of them were staring at the pig with fiery eyes, with shock on their faces mixed with a trace of joy.

Huang Qin and Ding Mian were also standing in front of the crowd, but their expressions were relatively calm.

As the pig’s belly was cut open, a tiny, lentil-like, shrunken kidney was removed.

Everyone gasped at the same time, and couldn’t help but let out an exclamation.

Even the chief surgeon stopped involuntarily, looking at the kidney repeatedly in his hand.

It seems that they want to try to figure out what is the difference between it and a human kidney, and whether it can be regarded as a human kidney.

Seeing that he couldn’t put it down, he seemed to wish to have a structural dissection of this freshly baked kidney immediately, so as to clear up his doubts.

“Is this the human kidney grown from a pig?”

“It looks very delicate, but I don’t know the specific structure?”

“It looks similar in appearance, but I don’t know if it has the same function.”

“I never thought that Sanqing could really come up with this thing.”

“If we need to transplant organs in the future, don’t we have to worry about it?”

“Human organs can grow from pigs. This scene is really amazing. It’s not that I don’t understand, it’s that the world is changing too fast.”

In the midst of whispering discussions, the chief surgeon quickly came to another operating table, ready to perform the transplant operation.

The onlookers moved in unison, came to another operating table, and surrounded them again.

The chief surgeon has performed hundreds of animal transplant operations in the past year, and his skills have reached the pinnacle, reaching the level of proficiency.

It only took him more than an hour to stuff the two kidneys from the pig into the macaque’s belly with smooth operation.

After suturing the blood vessels and the incision, the chief surgeon put down the surgical tools in his hand, let out a long breath, and shouted excitedly.

“The world’s first human kidney transplant in animals has been successfully completed!”

Thunderous applause broke out in an instant.

Dean Liu walked up to Ding Mian and Huang Qin with a smile on his face, and congratulated: “Both directors, the operation was a success, congratulations.”

The two smiled at the same time, Huang Qin was about to be humble, but he heard that Ding Mian had already opened his mouth, spitting out a long paragraph like pouring beans.

“The next time is very critical. We must send someone to stand by and closely monitor the physical condition of this macaque.”

“The most worrying thing is acute rejection. If it happens, targeted treatment is needed. I won’t say much about it. I believe you all know how to do it.”

“If you can survive 24 hours, it means that you have passed the first step and entered the next stage, which is the functional testing stage.”

“The sign of this stage is the formation of urine. If the macaque can urinate smoothly, it means that the transplanted kidney can work. If it can’t produce urine, a kidney biopsy is needed to find out the reason as soon as possible.”

“In the future, the macaque should be fine. It depends on how long it can live and whether it will have chronic rejection, whether it is serious or not.”

“According to the previous case of pig kidney transplantation, it should be no problem to survive for 3 months.”

“In short, each stage requires detailed experimental records so that sufficient data can be obtained.”

Dean Liu couldn’t help being stunned for a moment after hearing these words, but his expression remained unchanged, and he immediately agreed.

“No problem. We have cooperated for so long. I understand what you said. I will make proper arrangements and won’t let you down.”

Ding Mian nodded with satisfaction: “The first 24 hours are very important, if there is any emergency, please come to me at any time.”

“This time we used the kidney with the highest chimerism rate, a full 92%. I think the success rate of macaque survival should be very high.”

“We will continue to do other organ transplants after it survives for a week.”

Dean Liu couldn’t believe his ears for a moment, and asked in great surprise: “Apart from kidneys, do you have other organs to transplant?”

“They all grew out of pigs? Are they all transplanted into macaques?”

“That’s right, we still have hearts, livers, and islets of pancreas that need to be transplanted. I forgot to mention it to you before, so I’m really sorry.” Ding Mian showed an embarrassed smile.

Dean Liu was completely stunned at this moment, and he was a little confused.

After a while, he came back to his senses and confirmed it again seriously.

“You mean, you let the four organs of the heart, liver, kidney, and pancreas grow out of pigs this time? Or are they all human internal organs?”

“That’s right. But we still have to wait until it’s transplanted into macaques to see how it functions before we can confirm whether the experiment is successful.”

Ding Mian said with a serious expression: “If the transplantation fails, it means that our experiment still has a fatal flaw, and it cannot be regarded as a success. We must continue to work hard.”

“However, we have a backup for each organ this time, so we can transplant more times, and try to find out the reasons for the failure, so that we can make targeted improvements.”

“The only worry is that the chimerism rate of these backup organs is relatively low. I am afraid that the transplant operation will only be lower.”

“What do you think? Qin, why don’t you speak?” He frowned, turned his head suddenly, and asked Huang Qin for his opinion.

“Your mouth is like a machine gun, you never stop babbling, how can I have a chance to express my opinion?” Huang Qin said speechlessly.

“However, until now, we can only follow fate. Maybe the first transplant operation will be successful.”

Huang Qin was quite open-minded. He didn’t have high expectations. He looked at the experiment with a mentality that success is good and failure is nothing. Naturally, he didn’t worry that much.

This remark immediately made Dean Liu feel sorry for him, and he agreed: “That’s right, Director Ding, I very much agree with Director Huang’s opinion.”

“As long as we do our best, we don’t need to care too much about success or failure. Besides, scientific research is full of accidents and miracles. You have to believe in yourself.”

“Okay.” Ding Mian nodded and didn’t speak any more.

He looked at the watch on his wrist, pondered for a moment, and said, “I still have something to do, so I’ll go back first. Remember to call me when you pass the anesthesia and urinate.”

Huang Qin raised his hand: “It’s okay, I can stay here, anyway, it’s only morning, I’ll have lunch later, and keep watching in the afternoon, and the result will definitely come out in the evening.”

Ding Mian gave him an appreciative look: “Well, I’m more at ease with you watching in person.”

Surprisingly, an hour later, the newly transplanted kidney was producing urine.

Although the quantity is very small, only tens of milliliters, it also caused everyone to scream.

For the next 24 hours, Huang Qin stayed in the ward closely, monitoring the monkey’s physical condition.

If you feel tired, lie down for a while, and work harder than the medical staff.

Perhaps this kind of diligent attitude brought good luck, the macaque did not experience acute rejection, and the urine produced within 24 hours also reached hundreds of milliliters.

The detection of creatinine and other substances in the urine is enough to prove that the kidneys are working normally and excreting metabolites in the body.

Renal tubular necrosis, thrombotic microvascular disease, coagulation dysfunction, etc., these common complications of organ transplantation did not occur.

Although 8% of the cells in the transplanted kidney belonged to pigs, such as blood vessels and nervous system, after genetic modification, there was no immune rejection, but normal functions in macaques.

Of course, this all happened while taking immunosuppressive drugs.

In short, three days after the transplant operation, everyone knew that the operation was really a success.

Next, as long as the monkey survives for 3 months, even if there is another problem and it dies, it will not affect the overall situation.

*****

In the spacious rearing room, four happy macaques are raised in four adjacent enclosures.

“These are four monkeys who have undergone organ transplant operations. They are now in good condition. They can jump around here, eat, drink and enjoy life.”

Dean Liu said to the reporters who came to interview, the amiable smile, coupled with a white coat, looks very professional and has a deterrent effect on ordinary people.

After speaking, he also pointed to a TV set on the ceiling in front of the fence.

“They watch TV every day, and their favorite is cartoons about squirrels.”

“On top of that, they’re healthy and normal, which is pretty surprising.”

“Because this monkey has a human heart beating inside its chest cavity, which is not normal at all for a monkey.”

Dean Liu pointed to a macaque with obvious white hair on the chest and abdomen, and said that the chest hair of the other three were a little yellow, which was quite obvious in comparison.

The reporter and the photographer showed shocked expressions at the same time, and the latter immediately pointed the camera at the monkey and snapped a snap.

After filming, the reporter couldn’t wait to ask: “Can you tell me more about the situation?”

“In the past, we only heard that a pig’s heart could be transplanted into a monkey. Is it a major technological breakthrough now?”

“Hehe, that’s right.” Dean Liu explained the situation one by one.

“Speaking of this, I have to mention the major scientific research achievements of the Sanqing Group. They have been able to make pigs grow human internal organs, hearts, livers, and kidneys. There are no problems with these.”

“About a month ago, we successively performed xenotransplantation operations on a group of monkeys. Some of them had only one human heart in their bodies, while others had multiple organs including heart, liver and kidney.”

“The operation went very well. These are the monkeys in the best condition after the operation. They are expected to live for more than half a year. We are very confident about this.”

The reporter’s expression became dull, his eyes widened, digesting the huge amount of information.

After a while, he swallowed his saliva and asked the next question with difficulty.

“Can this technology completely solve the shortage of human organ transplants?”

“Of course.” Dean Liu explained eloquently: “We have done many experiments before, genetically modifying pigs, and then transplanting the pig’s heart and kidneys into baboons.”

“It started off really well, we administered different drugs to the baboons and managed to suppress the immune rejection.”

“But these animals don’t live very long. Three out of five died of heart failure. Compared with the hearts of humans and even primates, pig hearts are more fragile and cannot adapt to the high blood pressure brought about by walking upright.”

“During the ischemic time between removal from the pig and implantation into the baboon, the heart also suffers damage similar to that caused by a heart attack, and a human heart can recover from this damage, but a pig heart cannot. recover.”

“Similar to the heart is the kidney. The transplanted pig kidney will suffer microvascular damage, which will lead to kidney failure over time.”

“In addition, long-term administration of human immunosuppressive drugs also has unbearable side effects on pig organs, such as vascular diseases such as stroke.”

“It can be seen that pig organs can only solve short-term problems, but in the long run, they still cannot save the lives of patients.”

“Under these circumstances, pig xenotransplantation research has pretty much come to a standstill.”

“Sanqing had to turn to a more difficult route, which is to make pigs grow human organs.”

“Fortunately, they succeeded, and they have what you have seen before your eyes.”

“Look at this monkey, it has a human heart, and it’s still alive.” Dean Liu couldn’t help getting excited when he said this.

“Can you imagine that such a wonderful scene would appear before today?”

“This is the miracle of life!”

The reporter’s gaze has been focused on this monkey with white chest hair. Looking at the monkey’s smooth hair and healthy and powerful movements, no matter where you look at it, you can’t tell that it is a monkey that has undergone organ transplantation.

He couldn’t help but let out an exclamation.

“It’s not science fiction, it’s real.”

“Human biotechnology has developed to such a point that sci-fi movies have finally come into reality, and there are really inexhaustible artificial organs.”

Then, he seemed to think of something, and asked excitedly: “Since animal experiments are so successful, human clinical trials must not be far away, right?”

Dean Liu nodded meaningfully: “Soon, I believe that in the not-too-distant future, we will all see this miracle happen to patients.”

The reporter stayed for another two or three hours, interviewing the inside and outside of the animal experiment center, and then left with satisfaction.

They also obeyed the arrangement from above, and came to do a series of follow-up reports on the new achievements of Sanqing.

It’s just that everyone thought it was a fantasy before they came, but after they came, they became fanatical believers in science.

The only regret is that we did not interview the researchers of Sanqing, especially the two persons in charge who personally developed this achievement.

It is said that the two bigwigs are busy improving the technology and preparing for human clinical trials, and have no time for interviews.

They had no choice but to go to the animal experiment center to interview the surviving animals. At the same time, they also caught the person involved, Dean Liu, and asked about the detailed experiment situation.

Of course, the specific technical details and experimental data must not be disclosed, but with the pictures of these monkeys jumping around alive and well, as well as the basic scientific theories, it is enough for reporters to concoct a news report that makes people not understand it.

After the interview, the reporter gave full play to his rich imagination and wrote a news report, accompanied by the interview video, and published it immediately.