遺伝子操作したブタの心臓を人間に異種移植する手術を、アメリカのメリーランド大医学部の研究チームが初めて行いました。

Surgeons(外科医) announced they had performed the first transplant of a pig heart to a human.

The world’s first transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into an ailing human is a landmark for medical science.

→操作された:engineered/altered/edited等も

The 7 January surgery was a milestone(画期的出来事) for research on transplants between species, known as xenotransplantation.(異種移植)

※Xenotransplantation異種移植 xeno=異種の、外来の alien/strange ギリシャ語で見知らぬ人

ドナーが足りてない現状の中、「手術は画期的であり、臓器不全の患者の希望となった」と医師。

A groundbreaking procedure(画期的手術) that offers hope to hundreds of thousands of patients with failing organs(臓器不全).

There is an acute shortage of organs, and about a dozen people on the lists die each day.

→“This is a watershed(分水地点→流れを変えるもの、転換点) event,” 

※procedure 手続き、手術

拒絶反応が起きにくいようにするために、10の遺伝子操作が施されました。

Xenotransplantation risks provoking rejection, an immune response in the recipient that can cause the organ from another species to fail.

The pig had 10 genetic modifications. Four genes were knocked out, or inactivated, including one that encodes a molecule that causes an aggressive human rejection response. 

A growth gene was also inactivated to prevent the pig’s heart from continuing to grow after it was implanted. 

In addition, six human genes were inserted into the genome of the donor pig — modifications designed to make the porcine(ブタのswinish) organs more tolerable to the human immune system.

異種移植は長い歴史がありますが、1984年にヒヒ=baboonの心臓移植を受けた赤ちゃんが約20日後に亡くなったのを最後にほとんど行われてきませんでした。

Xenotransplantation, the process of grafting or transplanting organs or tissues from animals to humans, has a long history. 

Baby Fae was born with a congenital heart defect and became the first infant recipient of the transplanted heart of a baboon.

※graft=〔~を〕接ぎ木する 〔皮膚などを〕移植する/ 〔政治・ビジネスなどにおける〕汚職(事件)、収賄(事件)

※tissue 薄い織物 《生物》〔細胞の〕組織

※congenital〔性格・病気などが〕生まれつきの、生来の、先天的な、先天性の

※defect 欠陥、短所、欠点、不備、不良、不具合、瑕疵

霊長類よりも、人と類似点の多いブタの臓器

Recent work on such donor animals has focused on pigs because, although they have different immune systems to humans, the animals’ organs are anatomically(解剖学用上)very similar.

Pigs offer advantages over primates (霊長類)for organ procurements, because they are easier to raise and achieve adult human size in six months.

今回手術を受けた不整脈=arrhythmiaを患うデビッド・ベネットさん(57)は「死ぬか、移植をするかのどちらかだった。成功の見込みの少ない大それた試みだったが私にとって最後の選択肢だった」と語りました。

“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice.”

※a shot in the dark=(略式)①当てずっぽう②成功の見込みの少ない試み、大それた企て、無謀な企て

手術成功のニュースの後、ベネット氏の過去の罪が明らかになりました。

The man who received the world's first pig-heart transplant stabbed a man in 1988, leaving him paralysed. 

Mr.Bennett was found guilty of battery(暴行罪で有罪となった)was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

The victim was confined to a wheelchair as a result of the attack, before he had a stroke in 2005 and died two years later one week before his 41st birthday.

ヒポクラテスの誓い=Hippocratic Oathを立てている医師たちは、患者は平等だと言います。

米臓器調達移植ネットワークは、「犯罪で有罪となった者を、臓器移植を含む医療提供から完全排除するような懲罰的な態度は、倫理的に不当」だとコメントを出しました。

Doctors around the world are sworn to treat patients who need care equally, regardless of their past crimes or activities. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which operates the US transplant list, says "punitive attitudes that completely exclude those convicted of crimes from receiving medical treatment, including an organ transplant are not ethically legitimate."

今回の手術は、倫理問題、動物の権利、臓器移植を増やす方法など、様々な課題を浮き彫りにもしました。

The procedure has stirred up conversation around ethical dilemmas, animal rights and ways to boost organ donations through other methods.