Future Timeline

For the first time, a pig kidney has been transplanted into a human without triggering immediate rejection by the recipient's immune system, a potentially major advance that could eventually help alleviate a dire shortage of human organs for transplant.

The procedure done at NYU Langone Health in New York City involved use of a pig whose genes had been altered so that its tissues no longer contained a molecule known to trigger almost immediate rejection.

The recipient was a brain-dead patient with signs of kidney dysfunction whose family consented to the experiment before she was due to be taken off of life support, researchers told Reuters.

For three days, the new kidney was attached to her blood vessels and maintained outside her body, giving researchers access to it.

Test results of the transplanted kidney's function "looked pretty normal," said transplant surgeon Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the study.

The kidney made "the amount of urine that you would expect" from a transplanted human kidney, he said, and there was no evidence of the vigorous, early rejection seen when unmodified pig kidneys are transplanted into non-human primates.

The recipient's abnormal creatinine level - an indicator of poor kidney function - returned to normal after the transplant, Montgomery said.

funkervogt wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:20 pm

For the first time, a pig kidney has been transplanted into a human without triggering immediate rejection by the recipient's immune system, a potentially major advance that could eventually help alleviate a dire shortage of human organs for transplant.

The procedure done at NYU Langone Health in New York City involved use of a pig whose genes had been altered so that its tissues no longer contained a molecule known to trigger almost immediate rejection.

The recipient was a brain-dead patient with signs of kidney dysfunction whose family consented to the experiment before she was due to be taken off of life support, researchers told Reuters.

For three days, the new kidney was attached to her blood vessels and maintained outside her body, giving researchers access to it.

Test results of the transplanted kidney's function "looked pretty normal," said transplant surgeon Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the study.

The kidney made "the amount of urine that you would expect" from a transplanted human kidney, he said, and there was no evidence of the vigorous, early rejection seen when unmodified pig kidneys are transplanted into non-human primates.

The recipient's abnormal creatinine level - an indicator of poor kidney function - returned to normal after the transplant, Montgomery said.

https://www.reuters.com/business/health ... 021-10-19/

Imagine the impact that unlimited organs for transplantation--at affordable prices--will have on human lifespan. We, the people reading this now, could benefit from it someday.

Asaded wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 11:50 am I can't stop thinking about the use of animal organs for such experiments. Having been a vegan for many years, I believe that animal lives are as important as ours. And that's why I get confused by these experiments.

A US man has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.

David Bennett is doing well three days after the experimental seven-hour procedure in Baltimore, doctors say.

The transplant was considered the last hope of saving Mr Bennett's life, though it is not yet clear what his long-term chances of survival are.

"It was either die or do this transplant," Mr Bennet, 57, explained, a day before the surgery.

"I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice."

Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center were granted a special dispensation by the US medical regulator to carry out the procedure, on the basis that Mr Bennett would otherwise have died.

For the medical team who did the transplant, it marks the culmination of years of research - and could change lives around the world.

Surgeon Bartley P. Griffith said the surgery would bring the world "one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis", the University of Maryland School of Medicine said in a release. That crisis means that 17 people a day in the US die waiting for an organ transplant, with more than 100,000 on the waiting list, according to OrganDonor.gov.

funkervogt wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:55 pm Update: The guy just died. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/hea ... 437650002/

wjfox wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 4:11 pm

funkervogt wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:55 pm Update: The guy just died. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/hea ... 437650002/

Very sad. But hopefully the transplant provided data/insights that could be useful in subsequent operations.