Transplanted Pig Kidney Still Working After a Record-Setting 9 Months in a Patient
A patient has successfully lived with a genetically edited pig kidney for over nine months, setting a new record for xenotransplantation. The procedure aims to provide a viable alternative for patients waiting for human organ donors.
Why it matters
This success demonstrates the potential for gene-edited animal organs to address the critical shortage of human organs available for transplant.
A woman has lived with a pig kidney for more than nine months without needing dialysis, a record-setting achievement.
The woman underwent the operation at Massachusetts General Hospital on November 22 last year. As of Thursday, the kidney has been functioning for 285 days, according to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based eGenesis, the biotech company that used Crispr gene editing to make the organ fit for human transplantation. Previously, the record for a person living with a transplanted pig kidney was 271 days, set by Tim Andrews.
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