An American man with end-stage renal disease has become the first person to receive a new kidney from a genetically modified pig, marking huge progress in xenotransplantation – the transplant of organs or tissues from one species to another – said doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital.
The four-hour surgery, performed on 16 March, “marks a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients,” they said.
The patient, Richard Slayman (62) is recovering well and expected to be discharged soon.
Experts are keenly interested in long-term results of the groundbreaking animal-to-human transplant, Dr Jim Kim, director of kidney and pancreas transplantation with USC Transplant Institute in Los Angeles, told Reuters.
Slayman had received a transplant of a human kidney at the same hospital in 2018 after seven years on dialysis, but the organ failed after five years and he had resumed dialysis treatments.
The kidney was provided by eGenesis of Massachusetts, from a pig that had been genetically edited to remove genes harmful to a human recipient and add certain human genes to improve compatibility. The company also inactivated viruses inherent to pigs that have the potential to infect humans.
Kidneys from similarly edited pigs raised by eGenesis had successfully been transplanted into monkeys that were kept alive for an average of 176 days, and in one case for more than two years, researchers reported in Nature last year.
Drugs used to help prevent rejection of the pig organ by the patient's immune system included an experimental antibody called tegoprubart, developed by Eledon Pharmaceuticals.
Dr Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, who was not involved in the case, said xenotransplantation “is marching closer to becoming an alternative source of organs for the many hundreds of thousands suffering from kidney failure”.
NYU surgeons had previously transplanted pig kidneys into brain-dead people.
Montgomery said transplant centres are taking different approaches in gene edits and medications, and “another big step will be when the FDA authorises clinical trials so we may better understand what will work best for patients on our waiting lists”.
In January 2022, a University of Maryland team in transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old man with terminal heart disease, but he died two months later.
Reuters article – US surgeons perform first pig-to-human kidney transplant (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Genetically engineered pigs put xenotransplantation back in the spotlight
Gene-edited piglets opening door to animal organ transplants
First pig-to-human kidney transplant