It sounds weird, but that’s because there’s a lot of physical resemblance between pigs and humans. “Anatomically, organs such as the pig’s liver, heart and kidney are very similar to ours”, says liver surgeon Sérgio Mies, from the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Albert Einstein hospital, in São Paulo. Another advantage is that pigs reach adulthood much faster than monkeys. At just 1 year old, a pig already weighs between 60 and 80 kilos and can be a donor, while gorillas, which have organs the size of a human being, only reach maturity at 7 years old – not to mention that most primates are at risk of extinction. To date, no human organ transplant has taken place. But since 1996 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency that regulates drugs in the United States, authorized research on this procedure. “So far, the biggest hurdle has been the fear that transplanting organs from one species to another could spread deadly diseases. It is thought that AIDS reached man through monkeys. Therefore, it is important to investigate any thoughtless transmission before proceeding with the research”, says general surgeon Paulo Massarollo, also from USP.
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