2ND BABOON-TO-HUMAN LIVER TRANSPLANT DONE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 11, 1993                   TAG: 9301110071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH                                LENGTH: Medium
2ND BABOON-TO-HUMAN LIVER TRANSPLANT DONE
Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh, encouraged by the moderate success of their first baboon-to-human liver transplant last June, performed the procedure on a second patient Sunday.
The patient, a 62-year-old man, was dying of hepatitis B, a virus that destroys the liver.
The transplant began at 11:15 a.m. at Pitt Medical Center and was continuing nearly 12 hours later, Dr. John Fung, the lead surgeon, said by phone during a break.
The liver was sewn into the recipient in the late afternoon, after the man's shrunken and scarred liver was removed, Fung said.
"The liver is in," the doctor said. "It's too early to say if is functioning. He said the operation was "going as well as expected" and would be completed in about another three hours.
The first human recipient of a baboon liver, a 35-year-old man who was never identified, died Sept. 6, 70 days after the transplant. An overdose of an anti-rejection drug hastened an infection that killed him, doctors said in a study released last week.
Doctors on Sunday used a liver from a baboon raised at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas. Before removing the liver, veterinarians and scientists checked it for infections that affect baboons.
Animal rights activists didn't immediately return telephone calls Sunday seeking comment on the procedure.
Like Sunday's recipient, the first baboon-to-human transplant patient suffered from hepatitis B. He was near death when he received the liver during an 11-hour operation June 28.
The first patient also was infected with the virus that causes AIDS but hadn't developed AIDS itself. Doctors said they were pleased that the first patient's cells co-existed with baboon cells. Baboon DNA, the animal's genetic blueprint, was found in the first patient's heart, lungs, kidneys and two of his lymph nodes, an autopsy showed.
Doctors were also heartened by the fact that the first patient, who also received the transplant at Pitt Medical Center, experienced only mild rejection. Within a month of the transplant, the baboon liver had grown to nearly three times its original size to meet the chemical and physical needs of the recipient.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB