2023-08-17 15:16:00
A team of surgeons in New York hopes to perform a pig kidney transplant in the future on living patients, following successfully transplanting a pig kidney into the body of a brain dead man, and it remained functioning normally for more than a month.
An American scientific team announced that the kidney of a pig transplanted into the body of a brain-dead human being is still functioning 32 days following its transplantation, in the longest period recorded in this type of operation without the human body rejecting the foreign organ.
It’s a crucial step, as scientists around the world race to figure out how to successfully use animal organs to save lives, and donors offer fantastic opportunities to test the effectiveness of those efforts.
The transplant took place at New York University Langone Medical Center on July 14, for a 57-year-old man who was brain dead.
In response to the exciting question, “Will the transplanted organ really work like a human organ?”, Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the Langone Institute for Organ Transplantation, told The Associated Press, “It seems possible so far.”
The man was put on a respirator, following he donated his body to science. The man’s kidneys were removed during surgery and replaced with a genetically engineered pig kidney so that his body wouldn’t reject it outright.
Morris Miller’s family made a donation following his death from brain cancer, and his sister, Mary Miller Duffy, told The Associated Press, “I suffered because of it, but he loved helping others, and I think that’s what my brother wanted, so I gave him to the doctors.”
She added, “His name will remain mentioned in medical books and he will live forever.”
It should be noted that attempts to transplant animal organs into humans have failed for decades, as human immune systems attack foreign tissues, and what is new is that researchers are now using genetically modified pigs so that their organs are better compatible with human bodies.
More than 100,000 Americans are on the waiting list for organ transplants, of which 88,000 are waiting for a kidney.
“There are not enough organs available for everyone who needs them,” said Robert Montgomery, director of the Langone Institute for Organ Transplantation at New York University, adding that many people “die because of a lack of available organs, and I think xenografts are a viable way to change that.”
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