International Human Xenotransplantation Inventory: A 10-year Follow-up

Following the recommendations by a panel of experts gathered by the World Health Organization in 2005, an inventory was established to collect practices of human xenotransplantation worldwide ( www.humanxenotransplant.org ). The website was activated in October 2006, in collaboration with the International Xenotransplantation Association, the University Hospital Geneva, and the World Health Organization. A first report on the collected xenotransplantation activities was published in 2010 in the journal Transplantation . In 2020, the website was redesigned, and its hosting and management were transferred to the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital.

We collected information from publications in scientific journals, presentations at international congresses, the internet, and declarations of International Xenotransplantation Association members on xenotransplantation procedures in humans performed over the past 10 y.

A total of 5 new applications of human xenotransplantation were identified, with pig as source animal in all applications. The procedures involved transplantation of islets of Langerhans, skin, cornea, and choroid plexus cells. The treatments were performed in China, United States, New Zealand, and Argentina. No major complications or deaths were reported.

Several clinical applications of cell or tissue xenotransplantation are ongoing around the world. Compared with the previous reported period (1995-2010, with 29 activities, mostly without governmental regulation), the recent number of clinical activities was reduced, and all were officially approved. This information should be used to inform healthcare officials, staff, and the public with the objective of encouraging good practices based on internationally harmonized guidelines driven by initiatives such as the Changsha Communiqué.