Pediatric partial heart xenotransplantation as an early use case of xenograft tissue

Xenotransplantation is a promising advancement in the field of transplantation that could eliminate deaths on the waitlist and provide an unlimited supply of on-demand organs for those in need of this life-saving therapy. The results of preclinical studies in orthotopic heart xenotransplantation have shown that non-human primate models can consistently survive 9 months post-transplant. However, early clinical results in orthotopic heart xenotransplantation have been subpar compared to traditional orthotopic heart transplantation as the longest surviving patient survived for 60 days with a complicated postoperative course. Partial heart xenotransplantation could serve as an earlier clinical use case of xenotransplantation products due to the many advantages of the neonate and infant population for xenotransplantation as well as the unique immunogenicity of heart valves which is significantly lower than that of whole hearts. The adoption of partial heart xenotransplantation would allow more children to realize the benefits of a valve that tolerates somatic growth without the need for serial reoperation.