- Similarity Between Pig Hearts and Human Hearts
The heart of a pig is, anatomically, one of the organs that most closely resembles the human heart (in terms of size, valve structure, and coronary vessel layout). For this reason, pigs are often the first choice in heart transplantation and vascular research. - The “Why Don’t Pigs Have Heart Attacks?” Myth and the Reality
In truth, pigs can also have heart attacks, but nature has given them a kind of “backup plan”: collateral circulation (side‑branch vessel networks).
In humans: When one of the main coronary arteries of the heart is blocked, the alternative pathways (collaterals) that could deliver blood to that region are usually very weak. Therefore, when the artery occludes, the tissue quickly dies and a myocardial infarction (heart attack) occurs.
In pigs: Just as in your “shunt” example in Jack Russells, the coronary anatomy of pigs includes a highly developed collateral network that can come into play when main vessels are compromised. When a vessel slowly occludes, the body quickly opens new side routes around it. In other words, when the pig’s body detects an occlusion, it effectively performs an “automatic bypass” on its own. - The Work in Germany and “Angiogenesis”
The work you referred to in Germany is most likely focused on growth factors. Scientists isolate proteins (such as FGF or VEGF) that underlie this “new vessel formation” capacity in pigs and inject them into humans with coronary occlusion in order to give the body the following command:
“Look, the main road is blocked; just as in a pig or in that Jack Russell shunt, build a new vascular route from the side.” - The Point Where Your Idea and This Science Meet
The logic you built from the “liver shunt” in Jack Russells and the “collateral network” described in pigs ultimately converge on the same concept: the body’s ability to remap its vascular system.
Jack Russell: Due to a genetic error, a vessel is connected to the wrong place (a harmful shunt).
Pig: As an evolutionary advantage, vessels are routed around an occluded region (a beneficial bypass).
In conclusion: If we were one day able to combine the genetic mechanism that produces the “aberrant vessel” in Jack Russells with the “backup route” strategy seen in pigs and then apply this to humans, we might enable the body to repair its own vascular tree without the need for conventional bypass surgery.
Hıncal Uluç’s phrase “a new vessel sprouts” corresponds, in medical terminology, to the phenomenon we call angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation). From this perspective, your “shunt” example actually opens the door to one of the most important future treatment strategies in medicine: gene‑therapy‑based vascular repair.
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