A genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted in the United States for the second time into a living person, who at the same time received a heart pump, a first-of-its-kind combined procedure representing a new milestone for a rapidly advancing field.
• Read also: A first successful pig kidney transplant: the recipient leaves the hospital in good health
Xenografts – transplants of animal organs into humans – represent a potential solution to the chronic shortage of organ donations, and therefore hope for the tens of thousands of people on the waiting list.
The announcement was made Wednesday by NYU Langone Hospital in New York.
“We have combined two marvels of modern medicine in a new way,” Dr. Robert Montgomery, who conducted the kidney transplant, said at a news conference. According to him, this is “an important new step in our journey to ensure that vital organs are available to all those who need them”.
AFP
The patient, aged 54, suffered from heart and kidney failure. Lisa Pisano could not receive a heart pump because mortality is very high for people on dialysis. But she also had antibody levels implying she would have waited years for the opportunity to receive a human kidney.
However, because of his heart, he only had a few weeks to live, according to doctors.
“I had tried everything … so when this opportunity presented itself, I said I was going to take advantage of it,” said Lisa Pisano, a New Jersey native.
“I said, worst case scenario, if this doesn’t work, it might work for the next person,” she said from her hospital bed, warmly thanking her family and the doctors and nurses.
The operation to implant the heart pump (or ventricular assist device) took place on April 4, and the kidney transplant on April 12.
AFP
Nearly two weeks later, “no sign of rejection” has yet been observed, welcomed Dr. Montgomery.
Xenografts pose a challenge because the recipient’s immune system tends to attack the foreign organ.
The pig has undergone a single genetic modification, he detailed, in order to reduce this risk.
For the first time, the pig’s thymus, an organ playing an important role in the immune system, was also transplanted.
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced in March that it had performed a first genetically modified pig kidney transplant on a living patient.
Previously, such transplants had already been carried out on brain dead people.
Living patients have also previously received a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig, but then died.
These so-called “compassionate” operations foreshadow future, larger clinical trials. “We are clearly moving very quickly towards clinical trials, probably even faster than we thought,” said Dr. Montgomery.
