by Brian Shilhavy, Health Impact News:
The first man to receive a genetically modified pig kidney died last month, just two months after the transplant.
The transplant was done in March (2024), with much fanfare over being the first person to receive a pig kidney.
In a first, doctors at Mass General transplanted a pig kidney into a living patient
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital on Thursday said they have transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a human living with kidney disease, the first such procedure in the world.
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The patient, 62-year-old Richard Slayman of Weymouth, is recovering well and will be discharged from the hospital soon, according to his doctors.
The surgery is a milestone in the field known as xenotransplantation — when an organ from one species is transplanted into another — and is seen as a potential solution to the worldwide shortage of human organs for patients who need transplants.
Nationally, more than 100,000 people are on a waitlist for an organ transplant, and only some of the patients who could benefit from new kidneys actually receive them. Others endure long-term dialysis treatment. While on dialysis, patients may become too sick to qualify for transplants.
“Picture a different narrative,” said Dr. Leonardo Riella, Mass General’s medical director of kidney transplantation, “one where healthy young kidneys are readily available for transplantation in individuals with advanced kidney disease. Today, we are offering a glimmer of hope to many of these patients.”
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Riella became emotional describing the years of work that led to the complex four-hour operation on March 16.
This latest advance builds on decades of research. The world’s first-ever kidney transplant was performed 70 years ago at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Mass General’s sister institution.
Mass General worked with a Cambridge-based company called eGenesis, which raises Yucatan minipigs at farms in the Midwest. One of the pigs was brought to Massachusetts, where its kidney was removed and sent to the hospital by ambulance, in a box, encased in ice.
As soon as the pig kidney was transplanted, it started working. Everyone in the operating room burst into applause, said Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, a transplant surgeon.
“The kidney pinked up immediately and started to make urine,” Kawai said. “It was truly the most beautiful kidney I have ever seen.”
Kawai said he hopes the organ will function for at least two years.. (Full article. Emphasis mine)
But it did not function for “at least two years” as had been hoped, and the patient with Stage 5 kidney disease died in less than two months after the transplant.
The first person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died
Richard “Rick” Slayman, the first human to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, has died almost two months after the procedure.
Slayman, who had end-stage kidney disease, underwent the transplant in March at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston at age 62.
“The Mass General transplant team is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman,” read the hospital statement.
“Mr. Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation.” (Source. Emphasis mine.)
Many people with Stage 5 kidney disease can live for years while waiting for a human kidney transplant, using dialysis and careful treatment. (Source.)
The second person to receive a pig kidney transplant was Lisa Pisano in April (2024). Again, this was announced in the media as a huge scientific breakthrough.
A woman with failing kidneys receives genetically modified pig organs
Lisa Pisano was lying in a hospital bed at NYU Langone Health, hooked up to beeping monitors and an array of tubes. Her surgical wounds were still healing, and she looked tired. But the 54-year-old New Jersey woman said she hasn’t felt this good in years.
“I’m feeling better and better and better every day,” said Pisano, 54, of Cookstown, N.J. “I got somewhat of me back. Not there yet. But I’m getting there.”
Ten days earlier, Pisano became the second living person in the world to get a kidney from a genetically modified pig transplanted into her body to replace her own failing organs, her doctors announced Wednesday.
A Massachusetts man was the first to get a pig kidney last month.
Pisano also got a thymus gland from the same genetically engineered pig to help prevent her body from rejecting the kidney, as well as a pump to shore up her failing heart.
Pisano’s transplant is the latest development in the fast-moving effort to use genetically modified pigs to solve the persistent shortage of organs for transplants. More than 103,000 people are currently on the waiting list for organs. About 17 die every day because they can’t get one.
“We’re in a new universe in transplantation,” said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who runs the NYU Langone Transplant Institute where the operation was performed. “This would be a sustainable, unlimited source of organs. This would be transformative.” (Source. Emphasis mine.)
But 47 days later they had to remove the pig kidney in order to keep her alive.
Transplant patient stable and on dialysis after pig organ removed due to ‘unique challenges’ with heart, kidney health
A genetically engineered pig kidney has been removed from a transplant patient after it started losing function, according to a statement on Friday from NYU Langone Health. The patient, 54-year-old Lisa Pisano of New Jersey, is stable and has started dialysis, her doctors said.
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