
World’s longest-living recipient of pig organ transplant passes 60-day milestone
https://www.salon.com/2025/01/29/worlds-...milestone/
EXCERPTS: An Alabama woman who is also the second person in history to receive a pig kidney transplant is currently surviving for over , according to a recent report. Towana Looney received a pig kidney transplant at NYU Langone Health in November 2024, a pioneering surgery she received after waiting for seven years.
[...] The process of using animals as donors for human organs is known as xenotransplantation ... According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, as of September 2024 there were roughly 103,000 Americans on a waiting list for organs, with a new patient being added roughly every eight minutes.
Xenotransplantation, often with genetic modification, is viewed by many scientists as a hopeful alternative to bridge that gap, particularly with pig hearts and pig kidneys. Those organs have already been tested in monkeys, with four humans receiving these experimental surgeries — two for hearts, two for kidneys.
Looney, at least, seems optimistic that the experiment for her is going to be a complete success.
“I’m superwoman,” Looney told The Associated Press. The physician who led her surgery, Dr. Robert Montgomery, added that “if you saw her on the street, you would have no idea that she’s the only person in the world walking around with a pig organ inside them that’s functioning.” (MORE - details)
Why you shouldn’t scratch an itchy rash: New study explains
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1071617
INTRO: Your parents were right: Scratching an itchy rash really does make it worse. Now we know why, thanks to new research published today in the journal Science that uncovers how scratching aggravates inflammation and swelling in a mouse model of a type of eczema called allergic contact dermatitis.
“At first, these findings seemed to introduce a paradox: If scratching an itch is bad for us, why does it feel so good?” said senior author Daniel Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Scratching is often pleasurable, which suggests that, in order to have evolved, this behavior must provide some kind of benefit. Our study helps resolve this paradox by providing evidence that scratching also provides defense against bacterial skin infections.”
Allergic contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction to allergens or skin irritants — including poison ivy and certain metals such as nickel — leading to an itchy, swollen rash. Succumbing to the often-irresistible urge to scratch triggers further inflammation that worsens symptoms and slows healing.
To figure out what drives this vicious cycle, Kaplan, first author Andrew Liu, student in Pitt’s Medical Scientist Training Program, and their team used itch-inducing allergens to induce eczema-like symptoms on the ears of normal mice and those that don’t get itchy because they lack an itch-sensing neuron... (MORE - details, no ads)
https://www.salon.com/2025/01/29/worlds-...milestone/
EXCERPTS: An Alabama woman who is also the second person in history to receive a pig kidney transplant is currently surviving for over , according to a recent report. Towana Looney received a pig kidney transplant at NYU Langone Health in November 2024, a pioneering surgery she received after waiting for seven years.
[...] The process of using animals as donors for human organs is known as xenotransplantation ... According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, as of September 2024 there were roughly 103,000 Americans on a waiting list for organs, with a new patient being added roughly every eight minutes.
Xenotransplantation, often with genetic modification, is viewed by many scientists as a hopeful alternative to bridge that gap, particularly with pig hearts and pig kidneys. Those organs have already been tested in monkeys, with four humans receiving these experimental surgeries — two for hearts, two for kidneys.
Looney, at least, seems optimistic that the experiment for her is going to be a complete success.
“I’m superwoman,” Looney told The Associated Press. The physician who led her surgery, Dr. Robert Montgomery, added that “if you saw her on the street, you would have no idea that she’s the only person in the world walking around with a pig organ inside them that’s functioning.” (MORE - details)
Why you shouldn’t scratch an itchy rash: New study explains
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1071617
INTRO: Your parents were right: Scratching an itchy rash really does make it worse. Now we know why, thanks to new research published today in the journal Science that uncovers how scratching aggravates inflammation and swelling in a mouse model of a type of eczema called allergic contact dermatitis.
“At first, these findings seemed to introduce a paradox: If scratching an itch is bad for us, why does it feel so good?” said senior author Daniel Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Scratching is often pleasurable, which suggests that, in order to have evolved, this behavior must provide some kind of benefit. Our study helps resolve this paradox by providing evidence that scratching also provides defense against bacterial skin infections.”
Allergic contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction to allergens or skin irritants — including poison ivy and certain metals such as nickel — leading to an itchy, swollen rash. Succumbing to the often-irresistible urge to scratch triggers further inflammation that worsens symptoms and slows healing.
To figure out what drives this vicious cycle, Kaplan, first author Andrew Liu, student in Pitt’s Medical Scientist Training Program, and their team used itch-inducing allergens to induce eczema-like symptoms on the ears of normal mice and those that don’t get itchy because they lack an itch-sensing neuron... (MORE - details, no ads)