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Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston performed, for the first time, a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig to a patient. If successful, the results are expected to give hope to many people, as the procedure would be another step towards a possible solution to the chronic organ shortage.
The 62-year-old patient is “recovering well” from the four-hour operation that took place on March 16, 2024, according to the announcement. So far, the signs are promising. The new kidney started producing urine shortly after the surgery last weekend. The patient is showing improved condition, already walking the hospital corridors, and may be discharged soon.
The procedure, according to the hospital, marks “a significant milestone in the search for available organs for patients.”
In the recent past, other kidney transplants from genetically modified pigs have been performed, and the organs functioned, but the recipients were already brain-dead.
The pig’s kidney came from the eGenesis laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which aims to end the organ shortage for transplantation and radically change organ failure treatments.
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Hopes that dialysis will end
The procedure has created many hopes. The medical director for kidney transplantation at Mass General told The New York Times that if kidneys from genetically modified animals can be transplanted on a large scale, dialysis will become obsolete. The transplantation program was developed by the hospital’s parent organization, Mass General Brigham.
In the US alone, over 800,000 Americans have kidney failure and require dialysis. Over 100,000 are on the waiting list to receive a transplanted kidney from a living or deceased human donor.
Additionally, tens of millions of Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease, which can lead to organ failure.
Thousands of patients die each year while waiting for a kidney, as the organ shortage is acute. Only 25,000 kidney transplants are performed each year.
