Mass General physicians perform world's first pig skin transplant

Burn specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital are the first clinicians in the world to apply a live-cell genetically modified pig skin graft on a human wound.

The Boston-based hospital collaborated with XenoTherapeutics to create the tissue graft, known as xenoskin. The graft was genetically modified to remove a gene specific to pigs.

Massachusetts General surgeons transplanted the experimental skin graft and a cadaveric skin graft to a patient's wound in a recent clinical trial. They removed the grafts five days later.

"Both skin grafts were adherent to the underlying wound bed and appeared indistinguishable from each other," Massachusetts General said in a news release. "No adverse events were further observed or reported."

Human skin grafts are costly and often in short supply. The xenografts could offer a cheaper, more widely available option for treating second- and third-degree burns.

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