Baboon Liver Transplanted to Human for the First Time

Surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on Sunday performed the first transplant of a baboon liver into a human being.

The unidentified recipient, who was dying of hepatitis B, was listed in critical condition after the 11-hour operation, said Lisa Rossi, a medical center spokeswoman. Hepatitis B can destroy a person’s liver.

The transplanted baboon liver began functioning before the patient left the operating room, she said. The man is being given FK506, an experimental anti-rejection drug.

More information about the operation is to be released at a news conference today, Rossi said.

The patient’s condition made him an unsuitable candidate for a human organ transplant because the hepatitis B virus will attack transplanted human organs. Doctors think baboon livers may not be susceptible.

The last-known animal-to-human transplant was performed by Dr. Leonard Bailey, who put a baboon’s heart into a baby girl at Loma Linda University Medical Center in 1984.

The girl, known as Baby Faye, died 20 days after she developed an antibody to the baboon donor’s blood.

Just 10 days ago, Dr. John Fung, Pitt’s chief of transplantation, said Pitt researchers were developing techniques and combinations of anti-rejection drugs for use in transplanting a baboon liver into a human. But he said then he did not know when such an operation might occur.

The medical center’s Institutional Review Board, which monitors patient welfare, had not approved such surgery at that time.

The board and Fung were concerned about how to help a potential patient make an informed decision about the risks of such an untried procedure.

“The risk is sure death. The potential benefit is that they may be successfully transplanted,” Fung said.

Currently, he said, about one liver patient dies each day because a transplant is not available.