[1] In a first, two kidneys from genetically modified pig transplanted into brain dead man
Wion News: [2] Two pig kidneys genetically engineered to prevent rejection by the immune system have been transplanted into a man who was brain dead as a first step towards treating patients. The kidneys weren’t rejected during the 77 hours that the experiment, carried out in the US, lasted.
[3] “This game-changing moment [is] a major milestone in the field of xenotransplantation, which is arguably the best solution to the organ shortage crisis,” surgeon Jayme Locke at the University of Alabama at Birmingham said in a statement. The aim of the study is to pave the way for a clinical trial, which Locke hopes will get under way later this year.
[4] The experiment took place on 30 September, but the details were revealed in a paper published yesterday. The kidneys came from the same line of genetically modified pigs as the heart transplanted into David Bennett on 7 January. While Bennett got the pig heart because there were no other options for him, the kidney transplant was done as an initial safety test only.
The recipient, Jim Parsons, was injured during a motorcycle race. He was a registered organ donor, but none of his organs was suitable for transplantation. His family gave permission for his body to be kept alive on a ventilator so the study could be done. His own kidneys were removed and replaced with the genetically engineered pig kidneys.
“As a family, we had no doubt that this is what Jim would have wanted,” his ex-wife Julie O’Hara told a press briefing, standing alongside other family members.
Locke told the briefing that, while the idea of testing therapies in brain-dead people has been proposed before, her team is the first to do it. The Parsons model, as her team has decided to call it, could be valuable where animal testing isn’t sufficient, she said.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2305449-genetically-modified-pig-kidneys-transplanted-into-a-brain-dead-person/#ixzz7IazKPkG8