Pig kidney transplanted into living person in world first
Previously, pig kidneys have only been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead recipients and this procedure has sparked hopes for further animal to human transplants in the future.
Thursday 21 March 2024 16:53, UK
Surgeons have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a living patient - the first procedure of its kind - a US hospital has announced.
Richard Slayman of Massachusetts received the organ earlier this month after undergoing a four-hour surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston.
Mr Slayman is recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon, doctors said on Thursday.
The 62-year-old suffers from end-stage renal failure, a chronic disease where the kidneys can no longer function on their own.
The surgery has spurred hopes that transplants from animals to humans - xenotransplantation - could address the global shortage of donor organs.
Previously, pig kidneys have only been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead recipients.
Jim Parsons, who was kept on a ventilator during a study, received two pig kidneys that were not immediately rejected in 2022.
And researchers found a pig kidney to be working a month after it was transplanted into a brain-dead cancer patient last August.
Mr Slayman a 'real hero'
MGH said Mr Slayman's procedure marked "a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients".
Doctors hailed him as a "real hero" adding the surgery would not have been possible "without his courage and willingness to embark on a journey into uncharted medical territory".
In a statement, Mr Slayman thanked MGH saying the procedure was "not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive".
Researchers have been trying since the early 2000s to genetically modify pigs in a way that reduces the chance of the transplant being rejected by the human immune system.
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According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), more than 100,000 people in the US are waiting for an organ transplant, and 17 people die each day from this, with a kidney the most common organ needed for transplant.
Meanwhile, some 5,000 patients are on the kidney-transplant waiting list in the UK exceeding the 3,600 transplants that are carried out each year, according to charity Kidney Research.
The pig kidney was provided by eGenesis of Cambridge, Massachusetts.