Researchers test pig-to-human transplant in donated body

Researchers on Thursday reported the latest in a surprising string of experiments in the quest to save human lives with organs from genetically modified pigs.

This time around, surgeons in Alabama transplanted a pig's kidneys into a brain-dead man — a step-by-step rehearsal for an operation they hope to try in living patients possibly later this year.

"The organ shortage is in fact an unmitigated crisis and we've never had a real solution to it," said Dr. Jayme Locke of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who led the newest study and aims to begin a clinical trial of pig kidney transplants.

Similar experiments have made headlines in recent months as research into animal-to-human transplants heats up.

Twice this fall, surgeons at New York University temporarily attached a pig's kidney to blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient to watch them work. And earlier this month, surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center gave a dying man a heart from a gene-edited pig that so far is keeping him alive.

But scientists still needed to learn more about how to test such transplants without risking a patient's life. With the help of a* family who donated a loved one's body for science, Locke mimicked the way human organ transplants are done — from removing the pig "donor" kidneys to sewing them inside the deceased man's abdomen.

For a little over three days, until the man's body was removed from life support, the pair of pig kidneys survived with no sign of immediate rejection, her team reported Thursday in the American Journal of Transplantation.

That was only one of several key findings. Locke said it wasn't clear if delicate pig kidney blood vessels could withstand the pounding force of human blood pressure – but they did.