Medical success: Pig kidneys, successfully transplanted into humans

Medicine advances and manages to find solutions for medical problems that seemed impossible to solve a few decades ago. A genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted in the United States for the second time into a living person who also received a heart pump, a revolutionary combined procedure that represents a new step in a rapidly advancing field. speed. Xenotransplants - transplants of organs from animals to humans - represent a potential solution to the chronic shortage of donated organs and therefore a source of hope for the tens of thousands of people on waiting lists. "We have combined two wonders of modern medicine in a new way," said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who coordinated the kidney transplant, in a press conference. It is, according to his statements, about "an important new stage in our evolution to make vital organs available to all those who need them". The patient, aged 54, suffered from heart and kidney failure. Lisa Pisano could not get a heart pump because the mortality rate is very high for people on dialysis. She also had levels of antibodies in her body, which meant she would have to wait many years before she could receive a human kidney. However, because of his weakened heart, he had only a few weeks left to live, according to American doctors. "I had already tried everything (...), so when this opportunity presented itself to me, I thought I had to take advantage of it," said Lisa Pisano, a native of New Jersey. "I told myself that, in the worst case, if this doesn't work for me, then maybe it will work for the next person," added the patient, from her hospital bed, warmly thanking her family, the doctors and nurses at NYU Langone. The operation in which the heart pump (a ventricular assist device) was implanted took place on April 4, and the kidney transplant on April 12. Almost two weeks later, "no sign of rejection" has been detected so far, said doctor Robert Montgomery. However, xenotransplants represent a challenge, because the recipient's immune system tends to attack the foreign organ. The pig from which the kidney was taken was subjected to a unique genetic modification procedure, American doctors revealed, with the aim of reducing that risk. For the first time, the pig's thymus, an organ that plays an important role in the immune system, was also transplanted. Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, announced in March 2024 that it had performed the first transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney into a living patient.