Dr Robert Montgomery, who performed the surgery, said it “could potentially be a sustainable, renewable source of organs”. Scientists at NYU Langone Health in New York altered a pig’s genes so it no longer contained a molecule which triggers a rejection when transplanted. The recipient was brain-dead with signs of kidney dysfunction and their family consented to the experiment before life support was switched off. In the 54 hours before she died, there were no signs of failure.
Almost 7,000 in Britain are waiting for life-saving transplants – the highest in six years, NHS Blood and Transplant estimates. The majority need kidney operations, delayed due to the pandemic.
The kidney, attached to blood vessels in the thigh outside the abdomen, started functioning normally, making urine and the waste product creatinine “almost immediately”, according to Dr Montgomery, who carried out the procedure last month.
Tests of the transplanted organ’s function “looked pretty normal,” he added.
Dr Montgomery said the recipient’s abnormal creatinine level – an indicator of poor kidney function – returned to normal after the transplant.
“It was better than I think we even expected,” he said. “It just looked like any transplant I’ve ever done from a living donor. A lot of kidneys from deceased people don’t work right away and take days or weeks to start. This worked immediately.”
He said the experiment should now pave the way for trials in patients with end-stage kidney failure, possibly in the next year or two.