Doctors remove pig kidney from brain-dead man's body
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61 days after a pig’s kidney was transplanted into the body of a brain-dead man, surgeons ended the experiment on Wednesday by removing the kidney and handing over the patient’s body back to his family.
The experiment was led by Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, and the organ was removed from 58-year-old Maurice Miller, who passed away unexpectedly two months ago. The experiment was conducted after taking permission from Miller’s family.
“We have learned a great deal throughout these past two months of close observation and analysis, and there is great reason to be hopeful for the future,” said Dr. Montgomery in a press statement released by NYU Langone Health.
NYU Langone doctors and researchers recently completed the longest-documented case of a genetically engineered pig kidney in a human body, offering hope for the future of organ transplants.
— NYU Langone Health (@nyulangone) September 14, 2023
Learn more about the landmark 61-day procedure: https://t.co/htY07uL35S pic.twitter.com/p0gU4aoyKU
“None of this would have been possible without the incredible support we received from the family of our deceased recipient. Thanks to them, we have gained critical insight into xenotransplantation as a hopeful solution to the national organ shortage,” he added.
Mild rejection detected
The team will now conduct an in-depth study to analyze the experiment results. However, some tissues collected have shown mild rejections of the pig’s organ, thus requiring intensifying immunosuppression medication to reverse it completely. But overall, the organ was found to perform optimally.
The kidney was procured from a GalSafeTM pig for the experiment, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2020. Its applications include human therapeutics and as a dietary source for those suffering from alpha-gal syndrome, a meat allergy caused by a tick bite, regettingported Interesting Engineering.
The team genetically modified and engineered the pig’s organ so the human body wouldn’t reject it. While previous genetically engineered pig organ transplants have required up to 10 modifications, this latest case shows that a single-gene modification in the pig’s kidney can perform optimally after two months.
Next: Studies in living human recipients
The US has a transplant problem. There aren’t enough donors available to accommodate the demand. With over 103,000 people waiting for a transplant, 88,000 are waiting for a kidney transplant. In 2022, about 26,000 people received a kidney transplant, while almost 808,000 people have end-stage kidney disease.
While performing such an experiment, even if on a dead person, is a remarkable feat for the scientific community, there is a need for more research, including studies on living human recipients.
“To create a sustainable unlimited supply of organs, we need to know how to manage pig organs transplanted into humans,” said Dr. Montgomery. “Testing them in a decedent allows us to optimize the immunosuppression regimen and choice of gene edits without putting a living patient at risk.”
Interesting Engineering had reported earlier when the xenotransplant had completed its 32-day-milestone.
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