内容摘要：Then there’s the cardiac connection. The American Heart Association points to studies that suggest an uptick in heart attacks on the Monday after daylight saving time begins, and in strokes for two days afterward.

Then there’s the cardiac connection. The American Heart Association points to studies that suggest an uptick in heart attacks on the Monday after daylight saving time begins, and in strokes for two days afterward.

But dialysis doesn’t fully replace kidney function – people slowly get sicker. So even as Berrios tried an experimental therapy to tamp down his problem antibodies, he told NYU he’s interested in a pig kidney.FDA rules require that pig organs be extensively tested in monkeys or baboons before humans. And while researchers have extended those primates’ survival to a year, sometimes longer, they were desperate for experience with people. After all, the pig organs are genetically altered to be more humanlike, not more baboon-like.

, surgeons first tested pig organs in bodies of thedonated for scientific research.And patients given pig organs so far have been “compassionate use” transplants, experiments that FDA allows in select emergency cases for people out of other options.

Although the first four didn’t survive long, in part because of complications from other diseases, those experiments proved pig organs could work at least for a while and offered other lessons. For example, discovery of a hidden pig virus in the first heart transplant prompted better tests for that risk.Only rigorous studies comparing similarly ill patients will offer a clearer picture of pig organs’ potential – maybe those like Looney. Despite eight years of dialysis, she wasn’t nearly as sick as prior xenotransplant recipients but couldn’t find a matching donor. Like Berrios, she had a highly sensitized immune response.

Looney may be “kind of a litmus test” for trial candidates, said NYU’s Montgomery, who led her transplant with her original surgeon in Alabama, Dr. Jayme Locke. “She’s received the transplant at just the right time,” before dialysis did too much damage.

Attempts at animal-to-human transplants failed for decades. Now scientists can edit pig genes, and are searching for the best gene combination. (AP video/Shelby Lum)Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the

after officials met in Beijing and the imports will resume once paperwork is complete.China said talks this week made “substantial progress,” but did not confirm an agreement with Japan on the issue that has been a significant political and diplomatic point of tension.

”Seafood is an important export item for Japan and a resumption of its export to China is a major milestone,” Koizumi said.Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya also welcomed the move, saying: “It will be a big first step that would help Japan and China to tackle a number of remaining issues between the two countries.”