A pig kidney transplanted into the body of a human patient who was brain dead has been functioning well for more than a month, according to American surgeons. This is encouraging news for the endeavor to meet the country's high need for organ donations.
On Wednesday, surgeons at the New York University Langone Transplant Institute said that the achievement was the longest time a pig kidney has ever worked in a living, albeit dead, person. Institute head Robert Montgomery told reporters, "We have a genetically modified pig kidney surviving for over a month in a human."
He said that the findings offer "further assurances" for any upcoming research involving live patients. The genetically altered pig kidney was missing a gene that creates macromolecules that human immune systems target. As for kidneys, Montgomery said, "We've now gathered more evidence to show that, at least in kidneys, just eliminating the gene that causes a hyperacute rejection may be enough — along with clinically approved immunosuppressive drugs — to successfully manage the transplant in a human for optimal performance, potentially in the long-term.
On July 14, Montgomery replaced one of a deceased man's own kidneys with a single kidney from a genetically modified pig and watched as it started urinating right away. He said, "It looks even better than a human kidney."
The family of 57-year-old Maurice "Mo" Miller from upstate New York was convinced to donate his corpse for the experiment because of the chance that pig kidneys could one day assist alleviate the severe shortage of transplantable organs.
The kidneys perform a variety of functions in the body in addition to producing urine. Dr. Jayme Locke of UAB, a transplant surgeon, published laboratory studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the gene-modified pig organs in the journal JAMA Surgery. She claimed that the seven-day test shows they can "provide kidney function that supports life."
Since the immune systems of the recipients attacked the foreign tissue, attempts at human-to-animal transplants have been ineffective for decades. Now, scientists are utilizing pigs that have had their organs genetically altered to better match human bodies. Cross-species transplants could potentially aid those waiting for potentially life-saving organs, according to scientists.
