A pig’s kidney worked on a human for two months, a record: “We learned a lot”

“Over the past two months, we have learned a lot through detailed observations and analysis, and we have good reason to be optimistic about the future,” said the institute’s director, Dr. Robert Montgomery. NYU Langone Transplant Center. The hospital in New York where the procedure was performed.

Such transplantation of animal organs into humans, called xenografts, could offer a solution to the chronic shortage of kidney donors. More than 100,000 Americans are currently on the waiting list for an organ transplant, including nearly 88,000 waiting for a kidney.

On July 14, a pig’s kidney was transplanted into the brain of a dead man who had donated his body to science. The pig was genetically modified so that the human body would not immediately reject the organ.

While no signs of rejection were observed after a month, the scientists said on Thursday that a mild rejection process was observed thereafter, requiring an increase in immunosuppressive treatment.

More results will be released in the coming months, NYU Langone said in a release.

This team has performed several xenotransplants in recent years, including the world’s first transplant of a pig kidney into a human in September 2021. However, all the trials so far have been quite short.

This summer’s experiment lasted a total of 61 days, which is a record.

Darell Goodwin

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