Pig organ transplant to replace kidney: Why this could be a revolutionary world first?

It is the first. A 62-year-old man with end-stage kidney disease has become the first human to receive a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig, doctors at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital announced Thursday (March 21).

The four-hour long operation was conducted on March 16 and 10 marks A major step forward in finding organs accessible to patients“, the hospital said in a statement.

Genetically modified pork

The patient, Richard Slayman, is recovering and should be released from the hospital soon, it is said. The patient had already received a kidney transplant from another patient at the hospital after seven years of dialysis before his organ failed. The kidneys were provided by Egenesis Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts and come from pigs that have been genetically modified to remove genes potentially harmful to humans and add other cells to ensure compatibility.

100,000 people are waiting for a transplant

In addition, Egenesis inactivated certain viruses in pigs that could infect humans. The lab has successfully transplanted kidneys from genetically modified pigs into monkeys in the past that lived an average of 176 days, according to research published in October in the journal Nature.

The operation could go a step further in tackling the global problem of organ shortage. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for an organ transplant, with the kidney being the most requested organ.

In the past heart transplants were performed on patients without long-term success. Thus, in November 2023, 58-year-old Lawrence Fawcett, who could not receive a human heart transplant due to advanced heart disease, received a pig heart transplant. The latter failed a few weeks after the operation and the man died. This was the second such attempt.

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