The kidney was placed in a 66-year-old man by surgeons at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital, The New York Times reported. He is the hospital’s second patient to receive a genetically edited pig kidney. The hospital is also credited with implanting the world’s first patient with a pig organ in March, according to a Feb. 7 system news release shared with Becker’s.
So far, pig kidney transplant patients have not lived long after transplant. Two of the previous patients died shortly after the procedures, including one who was critically ill before the transplant. The longest-living patient post-pig organ implant is a woman who received a pig kidney in November at New York City-based NYU Langone Health.
But a series of clinical trials are exploring how to make pig kidneys more feasible. The FDA recently approved two biotechnology companies to begin clinical trials of xenotransplantation, or transplanting gene-edited pig organs into humans. Trials are expected to begin later this year.
Experts hope pig organs can help the thousands of people waiting on the kidney transplant list.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, this was the first of three patients expected to receive a pig kidney this year.