This is a first and represents a new step towards a potential solution to the chronic shortage of organ donations. Surgeons have transplanted the kidney of a genetically modified pig into a patient, an American hospital announced Thursday, March 21.
The patient, aged 62, suffered from chronic renal failure. He is “recovering well” from the operation that took place less than a week ago, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said in a statement.
Kidneys from genetically modified pigs had already been transplanted and worked in brain-dead humans. Living patients have also previously had a genetically modified pig heart transplant, but then died. Genetic modifications are carried out to reduce the risk of rejection.
The doctors “thoroughly explained to me the pros and cons of the procedure,” the patient, Richard Slayman, was quoted as saying in the release. “I saw this as a way to not only help me, but to give hope to thousands of people who need a transplant to survive. »
More than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. The kidney is the most commonly required organ. The field of xenografts – transplants of animal organs into humans – has been advancing at great speed in recent years.
The world first of a pig kidney transplant into a brain-dead human was carried out in September 2021, by surgeons at NYU Langone Hospital in New York.