For the first time, a Pig’sKidney was transplant into a person
Transplanting a clinically dead pig liver into a human, via a gene-edited pig, and a pathologist to evaluate whether there is acute rejection
The surgery marks the first time a pig liver has been transplanted into a human. However, in January, a team led by transplant surgeon Abraham Shaked at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia connected a clinically dead person to a genetically modified pig’s liver located outside their body. The organ circulated the person’s blood for three days.
Luhan Yang, chief executive of Qihan Biotech in Hangzhou, China, which is developing gene-edited pigs as a source for organs, says she expects more xenotransplants in clinically dead people or — for compassionate reasons — in terminally ill people in the United States, China and Europe in the coming years.
Dou says the pig was bred in a specialized pathogen-free facility and tested negative for about a dozen pathogens, including Streptococcus suis, the type-2 strain of Mycoplasma pneumoniae and porcine cytomegalovirus. So far, he has not seen signs of an immediate form of organ rejection and the liver is producing bile. “This is encouraging,” says Cooper.
The researchers can assess the immune response, infection risk, and function of the liver by taking daily blood samples. “We’re having a pathologist evaluate if there’s acute rejection,” says Dou.
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The surgery was approved by the recipient’s family and several committees. It has been done according to national and international regulations.
The researchers plan to repeat the procedure in another clinically dead person later this year — and next time they will remove the person’s existing liver.
Mohiuddin points out that although clinically dead people are a useful model for assessing the viability of xenotransplantation in living people, that usefulness is limited, because once a person’s brain ceases activity, they undergo hormonal changes. And it isn’t yet clear how long someone with no cognitive function can be maintained on a ventilator and with a donated pig organ, he says. The longest documented case was a pig-kidney transplant.
She believes the team will publish detailed information about the transplant in peer-reviewed publications to help determine which approach is more feasible.
The Massachusetts General Hospital said that Richard Slayman received the organ in a four hour procedure on Saturday. He is expected to be released soon from the hospital.
The hospital said that Slayman saw it as a way to help him and provide hope for the many people who need a transplant to survive.
One of the more intractable problems in the field is the fact that access for ethnic minority patients to the chance for kidney transplants is not as good as it could be.
How medical advances can help prevent disease in the developing world: An update from Revivicor Inc. on a farm breeding cloned pigs
Several companies are racing to develop cloned pigs who won’t get rejected by the human body, can spread pig diseases to people or cause other problems. NPR recently got exclusive access to a research farm breeding these animals for a company in this competition, Revivicor Inc. of Blacksburg, Va.
Mike Curtis, the chief executive officer for eGenesis, was thankful for the patient’s contribution to the advancement of transplantation science. This new frontier in medicine shows the potential of genome engineering to change the life of millions of patients.
The field is excited about using cloning and gene editing to solve the shortage of human organs. There are more than 103,000 people waiting for an organ. About 17 die every day because they can’t get one.
The research is raising some concerns. One worry is about the possibility of spreading animal viruses to humans. Another is about slaughtering thousands of animals every year to harvest their organs. Some question if the organs can be tested on critically ill patients.
“I think we have to be very, very careful,” L. Syd M. Johnson said, according to NPR. “I have a lot of concerns about a therapy that is very much unproven.”
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The four-hour surgery was carried out on March 16 at Massachusetts General Hospital. A sign that the patient’s organ is functioning as it should was when it began producing urine shortly after it was placed. Tatsuo Kawai, one of the surgeons involved, said the operating room erupted in applause. “It was truly the most beautiful kidney I have ever seen,” he said in a press conference on Thursday.
A US hospital said that it transplanted a pig liver into a human using gene-edited pig. The organ circulated the person’s blood for three days. In January, a team at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia connected a clinically dead person to a genetically modified pig’s liver located outside their body. The organ circulated the person’s blood for three days.