Scientists announced the success of transplanting kidneys from a genetically modified pig into a human recipient, and found that the organs produced urine and were not rejected during the days of experiment.
The operation was performed on a brain-dead patient who was a registered organ donor, and his family approved the research, according to the new study, which was published on Thursday, January 20, in the American Journal of Transplantation.
The research team eventually plans to transplant pig kidneys into live patients, in formal clinical trials, but first they wanted to address some critical safety questions.
The University of Alabama School of Medicine at Birmingham today announced the first peer-reviewed research outlining the successful transplantation of a clinical-grade transgenic pig kidney into a brain-dead person, replacing the host’s original kidney. These positive results illustrate how organ transplantation can address the worldwide organ shortage crisis.
In the study, scientists tested the first human preclinical model of transplanting genetically modified pig kidneys into humans. The scientists obtained the organs from a genetically modified pig in a pathogen-free environment.
“Today’s results are a remarkable achievement for humanity and advance transplantation into the clinical field,” said Selwyn Vickers, dean of the University of Alabama School of Medicine and executive director of the University Health System. “With this study, our research teams also demonstrated that the deceased model has great potential to advance the field of organ transplantation forward. “.
For the first time, transplanted pig kidneys were taken from pigs that had been genetically modified with 10 major genetic modifications, making the kidneys suitable for transplantation into humans. This process demonstrates the long-term feasibility of the procedure and how the transplant might work in the real world.
Pigs carry six additional genes taken from the human genome: four to help make each pig’s organs look more familiar to the human immune system and two to prevent blood clots from forming.
After removing the kidneys from the donated pig, the team examined the organs. Overall, the team noted, pig kidneys are similar to human kidneys, but differ in some ways.
After the transplant was performed, the scientists found that the transplanted kidney filtered blood, produced urine, and most importantly, was not immediately rejected. The kidneys were able to survive until the end of the study, 77 hours after transplantation.
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