In a major breakthrough, surgeons belonging to the NYU Langone Health, USA have successfully implanted a functioning pig kidney to a human body for the first time, USA Today has reported.
The surgical team who had attached the kidney to the blood vessels in the leg of a brain-dead patient on a ventilator, found that the organ began working “almost immediately.”. The organ was found to be functioning normally with no signs of rejection.
The procedure was performed in September, and the results are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The pig which provided the kidney was genetically modified to reduce the odds of the human body rejecting the organ.
This paves the for using genetically modified pigs as a major source for organ transplantation in humans.
Director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute who performed the surgery was quoted saying in the New York Times that the surgeons didn’t fully implant the organ into the body but getting it to function with proper connection to the patient’s circulatory system was the first major obstacle to overcome.
Research to modify pigs to serve as organ donors has been underway for more than half a decade. In the future, pigs have the potential to bridge the supply gap for organ transplants.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.