A 54-year-old New Jersey woman has become the second survivor to receive a genetically modified pig kidney. The surgery, which took place on April 12 at NYU Langone Health, included transplanting a pig’s thymus gland to prevent rejection.
Patient Lisa Pisano had a mechanical heart pump implanted days before her transplant. Although she was facing heart failure and end-stage renal disease, she was not eligible for a human organ transplant due to several other medical conditions. Her medical team says she is recovering well.
“I feel great,” Pisano said at a news conference Wednesday over Zoom from his hospital bed. “When this opportunity came up, I said, ‘I’m going to take advantage of this.'”
This is the first time a patient with a mechanical heart pump has received an organ transplant of any kind. This is the second known transplant of a gene-edited pig kidney into a living human, and the first to combine a pig thymus gland.
The series of treatments was carried out over a period of 9 days. During the first surgery, surgeons implanted a heart pump called a left ventricular assist device to replace the function of her failing heart. It is used in patients who are waiting for a heart transplant or who are not candidates for a heart transplant. Without it, Pisano would have only days or weeks to live.
In the second operation, a pig organ was transplanted. The animal’s thymus gland, which is responsible for educating the immune system, was placed under the cover of the kidneys. Robert Montgomery, director of the New York University Langone Transplant Institute, said the addition of the pig’s thymus gland was intended to reprogram Pisano’s immune system to make it less likely that it would reject the kidney, and hopefully help doctors. She said she hopes to be able to reduce the amount of immunosuppressants she has to take. Press conference.
This is the latest attempt to transplant animal organs into humans, a process known as xenotransplantation, which could potentially address organ shortages and provide transplants to people who would otherwise not receive them. It’s a certain method. In the United States alone, more than 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list, and 17 people die every day waiting for an organ. Strict eligibility criteria mean organs are prioritized for relatively healthy patients, leaving patients like Pisano with few other options.
Starting in 2021, a team at New York University began an experiment in which genetically engineered pig hearts and kidneys were transplanted into deceased humans after brain death. With the consent of the family, the patient remained on a ventilator so researchers could assess the viability of the pig’s organs. In one example, pig kidneys were able to: Functions in the human body for up to 2 months– Records of xenotransplantation. In monkeys, pig kidneys have been shown to function for up to two years. Scientists are currently testing whether they can support humans in need of new kidneys.