Transplanted pig kidney works in US man's body for record 271 days
A man has lived for a record nine months with a transplanted pig kidney while waiting for a human transplant.
In a groundbreaking breakthrough for xenotransplantation, a pig kidney has been successfully transplanted and functioned for an unprecedented 271 days inside a patient in the United States. Tim Andrews, the recipient, expressed hope that the transplant would spare him months of hospital visits for dialysis, which he described as a depressing alternative to a functioning kidney.
The Mass General Brigham hospital team, led by Dr. Leonardo Riella, emphasized that their work demonstrates the potential of pig organs as a bridge until a human transplant becomes available. However, the pig kidney eventually failed and was removed, necessitating a brief period of dialysis before a donor organ was found. Despite the transplant's success, the doctors acknowledged that there are still significant challenges to overcome in the field of xenotransplantation.
Andrews, who suffered from end-stage kidney disease due to type 2 diabetes, had been on the transplant list for years. He explained that the wait for a donor kidney could take up to seven years, but a person on dialysis typically survives only five years on average. The idea of a pig transplant provided him with renewed hope, as he described it as "hope" and "the light at the end of the tunnel."
Pigs were chosen for xenotransplantation due to their organ size similarity to humans and the extensive farming experience with these animals. However, the human body would normally reject a pig kidney due to its foreign nature, causing an immune response that would quickly destroy the organ. To address this issue, researchers at Mass General Brigham developed Yucatan miniature pigs through 69 genomic modifications.
These modifications aimed to humanize the pig's organs by removing pig cell features that the immune system recognizes, adding human DNA to camouflage the pig tissue, and disabling pig DNA viruses to prevent infection.
Despite these modifications, the pig kidney eventually failed after 271 days due to damaged blood vessels and inflammation. The exact cause of the failure remains unclear, as there were no signs of antibodies attacking the pig kidney. Nevertheless, the success of this transplant case highlights the promise and ongoing challenges of clinical kidney xenotransplantation.
Written by urgent.news from BBC Health's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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