Surgeons transplanted a pigB次元官网网址檚 kidney into a brain-dead man and for over a month itB次元官网网址檚 worked normally B次元官网网址� a critical step toward an operation the New York team hopes to eventually try in living patients.
Scientists around the country are racing to learn how to use , and offer a remarkable rehearsal.
The latest experiment announced Wednesday by NYU Langone Health marks the longest a pig kidney has functioned in a person, albeit a deceased one -B次元官网网址� and itB次元官网网址檚 not over. Researchers are set to track the kidneyB次元官网网址檚 performance for a second month.
B次元官网网址淚s this organ really going to work like a human organ? So far itB次元官网网址檚 looking like it is,B次元官网网址� Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of NYU LangoneB次元官网网址檚 transplant institute, told The Associated Press.
B次元官网网址淚t looks even better than a human kidney,B次元官网网址� Montgomery said on July 14 as he replaced a deceased manB次元官网网址檚 own kidneys with a single kidney from a genetically modified pig B次元官网网址� and watched it immediately start producing urine.
The possibility that pig kidneys might one day help ease a dire shortage of transplantable organs persuaded the family of the 57-year-old Maurice B次元官网网址淢oB次元官网网址� Miller from upstate New York to donate his body for the experiment.
B次元官网网址淚 struggled with it,B次元官网网址� his sister, Mary Miller-Duffy, told the AP. But he liked helping others and B次元官网网址淚 think this is what my brother would want. So I offered my brother to them.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淗eB次元官网网址檚 going to be in the medical books, and he will live on forever,B次元官网网址� she added.
ItB次元官网网址檚 the latest in a string of developments renewing hope for animal-to-human transplants, or xenotransplantation, after decades of failure as peopleB次元官网网址檚 immune systems attacked the foreign tissue. WhatB次元官网网址檚 different this time around: Pigs are being genetically modified so their organs better match human bodies.
Last year, University of Maryland surgeons made history by transplanting a gene-edited pig heart into a dying man who was out of other options. He survived only two months before the organ failed for reasons that but that offer lessons for future attempts.
Now, the Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to allow some small but rigorous studies of pig heart or kidney transplants in volunteer patients.
And itB次元官网网址檚 critical to answer some remaining questions B次元官网网址渋n a setting where weB次元官网网址檙e not putting someoneB次元官网网址檚 life in jeopardy,B次元官网网址� said Montgomery, the NYU kidney transplant surgeon who also received his own heart transplant B次元官网网址� and is acutely aware of the need for a new source of organs.
More than 100,000 patients are on the nationB次元官网网址檚 transplant list and thousands die each year waiting.
NYU and a team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham had tested pig kidney transplants in deceased recipients for just two or three days. An NYU team also had transplanted pig hearts into donated bodies for three days of intense testing.
But how do pig organs react to a more common human immune attack that takes about a month to form? Only longer testing might tell.
The surgery itself isnB次元官网网址檛 that different from thousands heB次元官网网址檚 performed B次元官网网址渂ut somewhere in the back of your mind is the enormity of what youB次元官网网址檙e doing B次元官网网址� recognizing that this could have a huge impact on the future of transplantation,B次元官网网址� Montgomery said.
The operation took careful timing. Early that morning Drs. Adam Griesemer and Jeffrey Stern flew hundreds of miles to a facility where Virginia-based Revivicor Inc. houses genetically modified pigs B次元官网网址� and retrieved kidneys lacking a gene that would trigger immediate destruction by the human immune system.
As they raced back to NYU, Montgomery was removing both kidneys from the donated body so thereB次元官网网址檇 be no doubt if the soon-to-arrive pig version was working. One pig kidney was transplanted, the other stored for comparison when the experiment ends.
B次元官网网址淵ouB次元官网网址檙e always nervous,B次元官网网址� Griesemer said. To see it so rapidly kickstart, B次元官网网址渢here was a lot of thrill and lot of sense of relief.B次元官网网址�
The University of MarylandB次元官网网址檚 Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin cautions that itB次元官网网址檚 not clear how closely a deceased body will mimic a live patientB次元官网网址檚 reactions to a pig organ B次元官网网址� but that this research educates the public about xenotransplantation so B次元官网网址減eople will not be shockedB次元官网网址� when itB次元官网网址檚 time to try again in the living.
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