For the first time in the world, US surgeons have successfully transplanted a kidney from a pig into a brain-dead human patient. A very important step towards the use of animal organs in human transplants.
The team of NYU Langone Health performed the operation on a woman who had recently become brain dead, obtaining the consent of her family. The purpose of the study, according to chief surgeon Dr Robert Montgomery, was “to provide the first evidence that the promising results obtained on primates can also be obtained on a human being”.
Genetically modified organ of a pig
One of the major obstacles in making xenotransplantation possible was the rejection of the organs by the host. To overcome this problem, the team used an organ from a pig that they genetically modified to remove a sugar molecule known to play a significant role in rejection. Surgeons attached the kidney to large blood vessels outside the recipient and monitored it for two days.
“The transplanted pig kidney had absolutely normal function,” said Dr. Montgomery to the Guardian. “She had no rejection and continued to filter and produce urine.” The team now hopes that this first test will soon lead to transplants on live hosts.
Towards a farewell to transplant waiting lists
Doctor Montgomery lives this with extreme satisfaction transplant of organ from pig to man. He himself found himself in the position of receiving a transplant: three years ago some colleagues gave him a new heart. He was lucky: many patients die while on the waiting list for a new organ.
“Today we are stuck in this paradigm: someone has to die so that someone else can live,” says the researcher. “And given the ever-increasing demand for organs for transplantation, this paradigm will not work. What we need is a sustainable and renewable source of organs. And that's what xenotransplantation would provide."
Robert Montgomery, NYU Langone Health
The pig has organs similar to human ones. Even similar in size. They are routinely bred for meat consumption, and this raises fewer ethical concerns among the public than, for example, organs taken from other primates. The team chose a pig kidney for transplant due to the promising results seen in primates, but they plan to test the method with other organs as well.
“If human xenotransplantation works with a pig kidney, it is likely that within a few years it will work with a heart,” says Sir Terence English, the surgeon who performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK. It was 1979.
