WORLD’S FIRST PIG-TO-HUMAN KIDNEY SWAP!
FOR the first time ever, a pig’s kidney was transplanted to a human and not immediately rejected by the patient’s body, a blockbuster medical breakthrough that may offer a lifeline to 100,000 Americans waiting for a new organ!
In a two-hour operation, surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York City took an organ harvested from a genetically engineered pig and attached it to a brain-dead woman, who’d previously displayed signs of kidney dysfunction. The procedure was done with permission from the patient’s family before she was due to be removed from life support.
The modified pigs — dubbed GalSafe by their developer, Revivicor, do not carry the gene that produces alpha-gal, a sugar known to trigger an attack from the human immune system, leading to organ rejection.
Surgeons say the kidney was attached to the blood vessels in the woman’s thigh and kept outside the abdomen, where it was covered with a protective shield during the 54-hour study.
Team leader Dr. Robert Montgomery says test results showed the pig kidney’s function was comparable to that of a human donor.
“The kidney turned a beautiful pink color and immediately urine started pouring out of the
ureter,” explains Montgomery.
While the FDA has approved the gene alteration process, the agency had not yet approved medical products derived from the pigs for use in humans, and so-called xenotransplants — from animals to humans — still face significant medical and regulatory reviews.
But Montgomery suggests the genetically modified pigs “could potentially be a sustainable, renewable source of organs.”