An Alabama woman became the third person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, doctors at NYU Langone Health said Tuesday. Towana Looney, 53, stopped kidney dialysis after undergoing surgery on November 25. He was discharged from the hospital on December 6 and, according to specialists, is in good health. Their intervention is the latest in a series of similar procedures known as xenotransplantations, the practice of transplanting organs from one species to another.
In the United States there are more than 103,000 people on the waiting list for a transplant, the majority requiring a kidney. Given the shortage of organs from human donors, some researchers are studying the possibility of using pigs. “I am overjoyed. I am blessed to have received this gift, a second chance at life,” Looney said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
A heavy history for xenotransplantations
Earlier this year, surgeons performed pig kidney transplants on living people for the first time. In March, Richard Slayman, 62, made history by receiving a kidney from a genetically modified pig at Massachusetts General Hospital. After his discharge, he was doing well, but died almost two months after the operation. In a statement issued by the hospital, the medical team stated that there was no indication that his death was a result of the xenotransplantation. In November, Slayman’s surgeon said his death was due to an “unexpected cardiac event” and that there was no indication his body had rejected the external organ.
The second attempt occurred in April, Lisa Pisano, 54, received a genetically modified kidney and thymus from a pig; after a mechanical heart pump was implanted days before. The addition of the thymus, a small organ located in the upper part of the chest that is part of the immune system, was intended to prevent rejection. The operation was also performed at NYU Langone. But 47 days after the transplant, doctors decided to remove the pig kidney after several episodes in which the heart pump was not able to pass enough blood through the new kidney. The kidney needs constant blood flow to make urine and filter waste. Without it, Pisano’s kidney did not function properly. He died in July.
Previously, two people received heart transplants from genetically modified pigs, the first in January 2022 and the second in September 2023, both at the University of Maryland. These patients died less than two months after the operation and were too ill to leave the hospital.
Lawrence Faucette died six weeks after undergoing the experimental procedure with a genetically modified pig organ.
What was different with Looney?
The last recipient of pork organs, Looney, donated a kidney to her mother in 1999, but developed kidney failure several years later after a pregnancy complication that caused harmful hypertension. Kidney failure in living donors is extremely rare: less than 1% of people suffer from it. Those who require a transplant have higher priority on the waiting list.
In December 2016, Looney needed dialysis treatment, in which the patient’s blood vessels are connected to a machine that does the work of the kidneys: removing excess fluid and waste from the bloodstream. In early 2017 he signed up for the national waiting list for a kidney transplant, but was unable to find a compatible donor. Due to exposure to other people’s tissues, through pregnancies and blood transfusions, almost all tissue types in the population were sensitized. High levels of harmful antibodies in his blood made rejection likely; He remained on the transplant waiting list for almost eight years as his blood vessels weakened from dialysis.
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