For the first time, a pig’s kidney has been successfully transplanted to humans. The extraordinary result, obtained by New York University Langone Health opens a new frontier for transplants: for the experiment, a pig was used whose genes had been modified in order to eliminate a molecule in its tissues that causes almost immediate rejection. Receiving the organ was a brain-dead, artificially kept alive woman with signs of kidney dysfunction, whose family agreed to the experiment before disconnecting life support. The kidney, connected from the outside, worked well for two days, with no signs of rejection.
The news of the transplant is certainly very important and is a huge step forward but caution is a must and it is too early to say that it may represent a possible solution to the shortage of organs to be transplanted. According to the CNN, however, experimentation in patients with end-stage renal failure could be authorized.
For Robert Montgomery, director of the Manhattan transplant center who performed the surgery, genetically engineered pigs could become a sustainable source of organs, although of course we must first investigate the long-term consequences of such a transplant. “We need to investigate the organ’s longevity,” admitted Dorry Segev, a professor of transplant surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was not involved in the surgery.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, nearly 107,000 people in the United States are currently awaiting organ transplants, including more than 90,000 awaiting a kidney. In the latter case, the average waiting times range from three to five years.
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