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Boston surgeons transplanted a kidney from a genetically modified pig into a sick 62-year-old man, the first procedure of its kind. If successful, the breakthrough offers hope to patients whose kidneys have failed. So far, the signs are promising. The new kidney began producing urine shortly after surgery on March 16 and the patient’s condition continues to improve, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said. The patient, Richard Slayman, is already walking the hospital hallways and may be discharged soon.
A new source of kidneys “could solve an intractable problem in the field: minority patients’ inadequate access to kidney transplants,” said Dr. Winfred Williams, the patient’s primary physician. More than 800,000 Americans have renal insufficiency and require dialysis, a procedure that filters toxins from the blood. More than 100,000 people are on the waiting list to receive a kidney transplant from a living or dead human donor. Thousands of patients die annually while waiting for a kidney.
Xenotransplantation – the implantation of an organ from an animal into a human – has been proposed for decades as a possible solution that could make kidneys much more available. But the human immune system rejects the foreign tissue. In recent years, scientific advances, including gene editing and cloning, have brought xenotransplantation closer to reality.
The kidney came from a pig designed by the biotechnology company eGenesis, which eliminated three genes involved in possible rejection of the organ. Additionally, seven human genes were inserted to improve human compatibility. Pigs carry retroviruses that can infect humans, and the company also inactivated the pathogens. In 2021, surgeons in New York placed a kidney from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead man and watched it begin to function. Shortly after, the University of Alabama announced a similar procedure with similar results. Surgeons at the University of Maryland twice transplanted hearts from genetically modified pigs. Although the organs worked and the first one did not appear to be rejected, both patients with advanced heart disease died.