A surgical procedure where tissue or organs from a different species are transplanted into a patient's body.
From Greek 'hetero-' (different) + 'plasty' (from 'plassein' meaning to form or mold). The term combines the concept of 'different' materials with surgical formation, emerging in medical terminology in the 19th century.
This is why scientists sometimes use pig heart valves to replace damaged human ones—it's heteroplasty in action, and it works because enough of our biology is surprisingly similar across mammal species!
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