Xenotransplants: Pig kidney transplant works in a brain-dead man for over a month

Surgeons at NYU Langone Health have transplanted a genetically engineered pig kidney into a brain-dead man and that continues to function well after 32 days.

Key points

  • This represents the longest period that a gene-edited pig kidney has functioned in a human, and the latest step toward the advent of an alternate, sustainable supply of organs for transplant.
  • This work demonstrates a pig kidney—with only one genetic modification and without experimental medications or devices—can replace the function of a human kidney for at least 32 days without being rejected.
  • Attempts at animal-to-human transplants (xenotransplantation) have failed for decades as people’s immune systems attacked the foreign tissue.
  • Now researchers are using pigs genetically modified so their organs are more humanlike are renewing interest in so-called .
  • Last year, University of Maryland surgeons tried to save a dying man with a pig heart — and he survived for two months.

Alpha-gal

  • The first hurdle to overcome in xenotransplants is preventing hyperacute rejection, which typically occurs just minutes after an animal organ is connected to the human circulatory system.
  • By knocking out the gene that encodes the biomolecule known as alpha-gal—which has been identified as responsible for a rapid antibody-mediated rejection of pig organs by humans—immediate rejection has been avoided in all five xenotransplants at NYU Langone.
  • Alpha-gal syndrome is a tick-borne illness that leads to allergic reactions from eating red meat, including meat of cows, deer, pigs or goats.

Xenotransplantation

  • According to the US-FDA, Xenotransplantation is any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of either (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs.

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