Nextran preclinical data

The Princeton, N.J., company and university collaborators published the successful delay of instantaneous, hyperacute rejection of pig hearts grafted into baboons, in which three hearts survived 4 to 30 hours. Unmodified organs are rejected in one hour. A commentary accompanying the publication said the findings are the first breach in the wall preventing xenografts from replacing scarce human organs.

As detailed in Nature Medicine, the pigs' red blood cells expressed the human proteins CD59 and DAF, which block stages of the complement cascade. The proteins transferred onto endothelial cells, which then resisted the complement-activated attack. ...