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Scientists have been experimenting with xenotransplantation of animal organs for a long time, but the human immune system immediately destroyed the foreign tissues, so they used genetic engineering to modify pig organs to more closely resemble those of humans.
Two men have already been genetically modified pork heart, but the new organs gave patients only a few months of survival. Kidney transplantation was previously performed on brain-dead patients. Richard Slayman was the first living person to be transplanted with a genetically modified pig kidney. The operation was performed on the 62-year-old man on March 16. After the four-hour operation, the surgeons at the Massachusetts General Hospital believed that the organ could last up to two years, writes the The Guardian.
After seven years of dialysis, Richard Slayman underwent a kidney transplant in 2018, but he needed dialysis again in May 2023. In order to avoid the complications of frequent interventions, the doctors recommended a pig kidney transplant. After much consideration, he went ahead with the surgery to give hope to those who need a transplant to survive. The man is initially fast healed, the body performed its task for two months. According to the hospital that performed the surgery, there is no indication that the transplant caused the death of Slayman, who suffered from multiple co-morbidities, including being treated for diabetes and high blood pressure.
Slayman’s family thanked the doctors in a statement. “Thanks to their enormous efforts in organizing the xenotransplantation, we were able to spend seven more weeks with Rick. The memories created during this time remain in our minds and hearts,” they wrote.
In April, New Jersey woman Lisa Pisano also received a genetically modified pig kidney and a mechanical pump to keep her heart beating.
More than 100,000 people are on the transplant list in the United States, most of them waiting for a kidney. Thousands of people die every year because they do not get a suitable organ in time. Scientists hope that successful xenotransplantations will be a solution to this, the paper notes.
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