An Alabama girl has grow to be the third individual to obtain a kidney transplant from a genetically engineered pig, her medical doctors introduced Tuesday.
Towana Looney, 53, is off of kidney dialysis after present process the process at NYU Langone Well being on November 25. She was discharged from the hospital on December 6, and her medical doctors say she is in good well being. Her surgical procedure is the newest in a sequence of comparable procedures referred to as xenotransplantation, the apply of transplanting organs from one species to a different.
Greater than 103,000 folks in the US are on the ready listing for a transplant, with the overwhelming majority of these needing a kidney. With human donor organs briefly provide, some researchers are exploring the usage of pigs as a possible supply.
“I’m overjoyed,” Looney mentioned at a press convention Tuesday morning. “I’m blessed to have obtained this reward, a second probability at life.”
Earlier this 12 months, surgeons carried out pig kidney transplants in residing folks for the primary time. In March, 62-year-old Richard Slayman made historical past when he obtained a kidney from a genetically engineered pig at Massachusetts Basic Hospital. He was discharged from the hospital and was initially doing effectively, however he died practically two months after the transplant. In a assertion launched by the hospital, his medical group mentioned there was no indication that his loss of life was the results of his transplant. In November, Slayman’s surgeon mentioned his loss of life was attributable to an “surprising cardiac occasion,” and there was no signal that his physique had rejected the organ.
Within the second try, this April, 54-year-old Lisa Pisano obtained each a kidney and thymus gland from a genetically engineered pig after getting a mechanical coronary heart pump implanted days prior. The addition of the thymus, a small organ within the higher chest that’s a part of the immune system, was meant to assist stop rejection. That surgical procedure was additionally carried out at NYU Langone. However 47 days after the transplant, her medical doctors elected to take away the pig kidney following a number of episodes of the guts pump not having the ability to go sufficient blood via her new kidney. The kidney wants regular blood move in order that it may produce urine and filter waste. With out it, Pisano’s kidney was failing. She died in July.
Two people beforehand obtained coronary heart transplants from genetically engineered pigs, the primary in January 2022 and a second in September 2023, each on the College of Maryland. These sufferers died lower than two months after their surgical procedures and had been too sick to go away the hospital.
