© 1995 Nature Publishing Group http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine • NEWS Pig-to-human heart transplant DID YOU KNOW? slated to begin in 1996 Number of US medical school applicants reaches new high The world's first xenotransplants of trans Each monkey received levels of im For the third year in succession, record genic human-pig hearts into human munosuppressants similar to those given numbers of people have applied to medical recipients may be performed at the human transplant recipients. Examina schools in the United States, according to Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, tion of two monkeys on days 34 and 35 figures released recently by the Association UK, early next year. This follows the with the pig hearts still beating showed of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). announcement that Imutran Ltd, in them to be normal, with no signs of By late August, the number of hopefuls Cambridge, has made significant headway rejection. had reached 46,514, up 1,149 from last in overcoming the problem of hyperacute Approvals for the trial will now be year, when 45,365 applied but only one in rejection, a major hurdle in the use of sought from the ethics committee at the three applicants was chosen. A full break animal organs for human transplantation. hospital. It is expected that five or six down will be given at the association's At a meeting at the Royal Society of people will receive pig hearts in the initial meeting later this month in Washington, DC. Medicine in London in September, David trial. Likely candidates will include people The reasons for the trend are unclear, but, White, research director of Imutran, said with rare tissue types for whom there is as a rule, greater numbers of people apply that in the company's latest trials two little chance of a suitable human donor. to medical school when the job market for out of ten monkeys were still alive more John Wallwork, director of cardiac college graduates is poor, according to than 60 days after receiving pig hearts. transplantation at Papworth, and a non AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen. The The median survival was 40 days, executive director of Imutran, said, "This number of college graduates in general, and whereas control (non-transgenic) pig research is now well advanced and we are science in particular, are also factors, he said. hearts lasted 55 minutes. This contrasts making excellent progress in developing DIANE GERSHON with a maximum survival of 30 hours animal organs for transplantation - but recorded using a similar approach by K.R. it is important to understand that Jobless totals in Germany -just McCurry et al. in the United States (see it will be several years before they are what the doctor ordered Nature Medicine 1, 423-427; 1995). offered routinely as an alternative." The number of doctors out of work in The technique involves transferring In the UK there are almost 6,000 people Germany is far lower than expected genes for human complement inhibitor currently on the waiting list for a donor following reunification in 1990. The latest proteins into a pig fetus and inducing the heart; in the USA 30,000. Fewer than half government statistics show that as of pig to express the proteins, thereby trick are likely to receive a heart transplant. September 1994, there were 7,810 ing the human immune system into NUALA MORAN unemployed doctors in Germany. Far seeing the pig organ as human. London gloomier forecasts had been projected at a meeting of the medical associations held in Berlin in 1989 (just months before the fall of Transgenic regulations outlined the Berlin Wall). Frank-Uirich Montgomery, president of the Clinical Doctors' Association, In August, the US Food therapeutic interest in their had predicted that as many as 53,000 and Drug Administration milk in large quantities. doctors could be out of work by 1995. (FDA) released its blueprint Yields of one gram of pro Even so, labour office officials say that for the regulation of prod tein per litre of milk, some young doctors are still finding it difficult ucts derived from trans an amount that would be to find suitable positions: More than 70 genic animals. Essentially, difficult to obtain by percent of unemployed doctors are interns. the 'points-to-consider' doc conventional cell culture Moreover, residencies in paediatrics and ument outlines how the methods, have been ob ophthalmology are still scarce. At the end of agency intends to regulate tained. Genzyme expects to last year, there were 267,186 doctors in this new technology and test one of their products, Germany (population 80 million), 40 percent and covers such aspects as Antithrombin III, in clinical in general practice, 48 percent in hospitals, the safety, purity and con trials next April. and the rest in industry or the civil service. sistency of the final Transgenic animals repre KLAUS DALLIBOR product. The document also sent a 'living and walking Berlin spells out rules for compa Milking transgenic goats bioreactor' and, just as nies developing transgenic for therapeutic proteins. a company would be re Glaxo Wellcome trims the fat animals as a source of quired to monitor what The fallout from the merger between Glaxo organs for human xenotransplantation. goes into a bioreactor, the FDA will and Wellcome became apparent last month Carol Ziomek of Genzyme Transgenics require companies to monitor the health when the company announced 7,500 job in Framingham, Massachusetts, character of the transgenic animals and to ensure losses as a result of the merger. The jobs will izes the new document as a collection of that their feed is free of pesticides or go by the end of 1998, saving the company relevant pre-existing points-to-consider herbicides. £700 million (US$1 .08 billion) per annum. documents. Genzyme is breeding trans- BARBARA NASTO NUALA MORAN genic goats that express proteins of New York London
NATURE MEDICINE, VOLUME 1, NUMBER 10, OCTOBER 1995 987