US surgeons perform first pig-to-human kidney transplant

A 62-year-man with end-stage renal disease has become the first human to receive a new kidney from a genetically modified pig, doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced on Thursday. The four-hour surgery, performed on March 16, marks a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients, the hospital said in a statement. The patient, Richard Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is recovering well and expected to be discharged soon, the hospital said.

Experts are keenly interested in the long-term results of the groundbreaking animal-to-human transplant, said Dr. Jim Kim, director of kidney and pancreas transplantation with USC Transplant Institute in Los Angeles. Slayman received a transplant of a human kidney at the same hospital in 2018 after seven years on dialysis, but the organ failed after five years and he resumed dialysis treatments.

Kidney from genetically edited pig
The kidney was provided by eGenesis of Cambridge, Massachusetts, from a pig that had been genetically edited to remove genes harmful to a human recipient and add certain human genes to improve compatibility. The company also inactivated viruses inherent to pigs that have the potential to infect humans.

Kidneys from similarly edited pigs raised by eGenesis had successfully been transplanted into monkeys that were kept alive for an average of 176 days, and in one case for more than two years, researchers reported in October in the journal Nature. Drugs used to help prevent rejection of the pig organ by the patient's immune system included an experimental antibody called tegoprubart, developed by Eledon Pharmaceuticals. The surgery marks progress in xenotransplantation  the transplanting of organs or tissues from one species to another - said Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, who was not involved in the case.