A terminally sick patient has become the first person in history to receive a kidney transplant from a gene-edited pig and to have a mechanical heart pump surgically inserted. NYU Langone Health surgeons carried out the procedure in two stages. The first stage was the implantation of the heart pump. Days later, the second one involved the transfer of a pig’s thymus gland and kidney that had undergone genetic modification. The pig’s thymus gland creates white blood cells to help the immune system fight diseases — to help prevent rejection. The patient, Lisa Pisano, a 54-year-old New Jersey resident, had end-stage renal illness and heart failure. Last Thursday, the hospital stated that she was not a candidate for a kidney or heart transplant due to multiple chronic illnesses, including being on dialysis.
Apart from that, the hospital states that Pisano has elevated levels of antibodies detrimental to human tissue, which would complicate the process of matching for a human kidney transplant. These antibodies, however, did not affect the organs from gene-edited pigs.
Lisa was aware that she’d have the first ever combined heart pump and pig kidney transplant.
“All I want is the opportunity to have a better life,” Pisano said in a statement. “After I was ruled out for a human transplant, I learned I didn’t have a lot of time left. My doctors thought there may be a chance I could be approved to receive a gene-edited pig kidney, so I discussed it with my family and my husband.”
The Search for Pig Organs
More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant waiting list, most who need a kidney, and thousands die waiting. Many biotech businesses are genetically altering pigs to make their organs more human-like in an effort to address the scarcity of donated organs. This makes less people’s immune systems likely to destroy them. With encouraging outcomes, research teams from NYU and other institutions have temporarily implanted pig hearts and kidneys into brain-dead individuals.
Later, the University of Maryland transplanted pig hearts into two men who were out of other options. Both men died months later. New hopes have been sparked for the first ever combined heart pump and pig kidney transplant last month by Mass General’s kidney transplant. Richard “Rick” Slayman had a fright of early rejection, but he recovered enough to return home earlier this month, and five weeks after the transplant, he is currently doing well, according to Kawai. A recent biopsy revealed no new issues.
About The Pig Kidney Procedure
Over the course of nine days, two different surgical teams carried out the sequence of operations. Surgeons installed the left ventricular assist device (LVAD), typically utilized by individuals in the waiting period for a heart transplant or have been declared ineligible for a heart transplant during the initial procedure. Pisano would have had a life expectancy expressed in weeks or days if she had not had a heart pump. Surgeons took on the procedure on April 4th, 2024, in NYU Langone’s Kimmel Pavilion in New York.
A xenotransplant, or organ transplant between distinct species, was the second surgery. On April 12, the xenotransplant was overseen by Dr. Montgomery. Pisano had elevated levels of deleterious antibodies towards human tissue, but not against organs from gene-edited pigs. Finding a match for a kidney donation from a person would have taken years.
NYU Langone Transplant Institute
The best lung and kidney transplant programs in the country are provided at the NYU Langone Transplant Institute. The liver and heart transplant programs shine out in terms of national survival rates and their ability to remove patients from the waiting list, according to federal quality data. The institute carried out 576 organ transplants in 2023. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) has authorized NYU Langone’s heart, kidney, liver, lung, and pancreatic transplant programs, indicating that they have complied with the strict volume, procedural, quality, and survival result standards of CMS regulation.
Written By Dijana Reedfields.
Sources:
6ABC Philadelphia – Woman is 1st patient to undergo combined heart pump implant and pig kidney transplant
NBC News – Doctors combine a pig kidney transplant and a heart device in bid to extend a woman’s life
ABC news – Woman becomes 1st patient to undergo combined heart pump implant and pig kidney transplant
Featured Image Courtesy of Mallix’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Scott & White Healthcare‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
