2024-03-21 15:35:57
Surgeons carry out the world’s first transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney into a living human being. A team of surgeons successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a living patient for the first time, the hospital announced on March 21, 2024. Image from March 16, 2024, provided by Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (United States) . MICHELLE ROSE / AFP
This is a first and represents a new step towards a potential solution to the chronic shortage of organ donations. Surgeons have transplanted the kidney of a genetically modified pig into a patient, an American hospital announced Thursday March 21.
The patient, aged 62, suffered from chronic renal failure. He “recovering well” of the operation which took place less than a week ago, declared in a communiqué the Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston.
Kidneys from genetically modified pigs had already been transplanted and worked in brain-dead humans. Living patients have also previously had a genetically modified pig heart transplant, but then died. Genetic modifications are carried out to reduce the risk of rejection.
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The doctors “carefully explained to me the pros and cons of the procedure”said the patient, Richard Slayman, quoted in the press release. “I saw this as a way to not only help me, but also to give hope to thousands of people who need a transplant to survive. »
More than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. The kidney is the most commonly required organ. The field of xenografts – transplants of animal organs into humans – has been advancing at great speed in recent years.
The world first of a pig kidney transplant into a brain-dead human was carried out in September 2021, by surgeons at NYU Langone Hospital in New York.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Pig’s heart in a man’s body: where are we with xenografts?
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