Doctors Transplant Crispr-Edited Pig Kidney Into Living Patient
Doctors successfully transplanted a genetically-edited pig kidney into a man with end-stage disease, a step towards using animal sources to help alleviate critical shortages of organs available for transplants.
(Bloomberg) -- Doctors successfully transplanted a genetically-edited pig kidney into a man with end-stage disease, a step towards using animal sources to help alleviate critical shortages of organs available for transplants.
The 62-year-old patient is recovering from the four-hour procedure performed March 16 and is expected to be discharged soon, according to a statement from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The patient, Richard Slayman, had an earlier kidney transplant in 2018 that began failing last year.
The procedure used Crispr gene-editing technology to adapt the organ for transplantation into a human body, building on previous efforts to use pig kidneys to treat organ failure temporarily, or in the bodies of brain-dead humans. The development may help approximately 90,000 patients in the US waiting for kidney transplants.
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