Pig kidney working in a human body
This July 14, 2023, image released by NYU Langone Health in New York, shows a team of surgeons transplanting a pig kidney. The genetically-modified pig kidney is continuing to function well into a record-breaking 32 days, after it was transplanted into a brain dead patient, the medical center said on August 16, 2023. PHOTO/AFP
What you need to know:
- Last year, the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig died two months after the ground-breaking experiment done at the Maryland hospital in the US.
- The doctors did not give an exact cause of death but only said that his condition had started deteriorating several days earlier.
Surgeons in the United States say they have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into the body of a brain-dead human patient.
This is after the family of Maurice “Mo” Miller, a man who had died suddenly at the age of 57, donated his body to science, with researchers assuring that they will continue to monitor the experiment as it enters its second month.
The surgeons at the New York University Langone Transplant Institute disclosed that the pig kidney has been functioning normally almost two months later in what they describe as a promising sign in the effort to address widespread organ donation needs.
“Researchers have reached a new milestone in the future of organ transplantation: a modified pig kidney transplanted into a human has been successfully functioning for 32 consecutive days,” NYU Langone Health announced on their official Twitter account while explaining that the aim of the study was to show that removing a single gene from a pig kidney is enough to prevent organ rejection in a human for 32 days.
This is the longest time a pig kidney has functioned in the body of a human being.
Last year, the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig died two months after the ground-breaking experiment done at the Maryland hospital in the US.
The doctors did not give an exact cause of death but only said that his condition had started deteriorating several days earlier.
David Bennett, 57, had received his transplant on January 7 and passed away March 8, the University of Maryland Medical System said in a statement.
Following surgery, the transplanted heart had performed very well for several weeks without any signs of rejection, the hospital added.
But doctors have not given up hope and have for decades sought to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.
It is important to note that prior attempts at such transplants or xenotransplantation have failed largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ but this time, the Maryland surgeons used a heart from a gene-edited pig as scientists had modified the animal to remove pig genes that trigger the hyper-fast rejection and add human genes to help the body accept the organ.
But still it did not work.
