Ground breaking pig kidney transplant into a human

Surgeons in the United States performed a ground breaking pig kidney transplant into a human. They were successfully able to transplant the organ for three days.

The patient’s immune system did not immediately reject the organ. This is a fantastic success. It is hoped that this trial could pave the way for future transplants. Many people wait years for a kidney transplant.

The ground breaking procedure was performed at NYU Langone Health in New York City. The genes of the pig had been changed. This was to prevent immediate organ rejection.

The trial was carried out on a brain-dead patient. The family consented to the transplant. The patient was suffering from kidney dysfunction according to Reuters.

The kidney stayed in place for three days. This allowed the researchers time to monitor reactions.

The trial was led by transplant surgeon Dr Robert Montgomery. Montgomery commented that the test results from the organ “looked pretty normal.” Future trials will still be needed. It is expected that future participants would be patients who are unlikely to receive a human kidney transplant.

Montgomery commented: “For a lot of those people, the mortality rate is as high as it is for some cancers, and we don’t think twice about using new drugs and doing new trials (in cancer patients) when it might give them a couple of months more of life.”

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