On Sept. 25, researchers at New York University observed how a kidney from a genetically modified pig functioned while attached to the body of a brain-dead person, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Pig kidney successfully transplanted into a human for the first time: a ‘transformative moment’
According to the news outlet, the woman showed signs of kidney dysfunction and had to be taken off life support before her family agreed to the procedure.
The kidney was attached to her blood vessels in her upper leg and kept out of her abdomen for three days so researchers could study it, according to CBS News.
During that time, it was covered with a protective shield. Robert Montgomery, who led the surgical team for the operation at NYU Langone Health, said in a statement that the procedure was a “transformative moment in organ transplantation.”
In an interview with CBS Evening News, Montgomery said he believes researchers could do a similar transplant in a living human being “in the next year or two.”
“I think it will be something that, you know, will eventually be perfected to the point where it’s an alternative to a human organ,” the physician told the news outlet, adding, “I’m hopeful.”
Until this point, a single molecule was one of the biggest hurdles for experts investigating the possible use of animal organs in humans, Montgomery said.
This time, however, the researchers used an organ from a genetically modified pig without the molecule in question, and it worked.
Montgomery said the kidney “turned a beautiful pink color” and urine “immediately” began passing from the kidney to the bladder after the xenotransplantation, leaving the researchers in the room stunned.
“There was dead silence for a few minutes as we took in what we were seeing, which was incredible,” he told CBS Evening News. “It was a functioning kidney right away.”
