A man received the “first genetically-edited pig kidney transplant” in a human patient Saturday at a Boston hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital said.
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) announced in a press release Thursday that its surgeons transplanted a “genetically-edited pig kidney” into Richard “Rick” Slayman, who they said will be “discharged soon.” Slayman is “recovering well” from the four-hour procedure carried out March 16.
The pig kidney surgeons transplanted into the patient no longer contained dangerous pig genes as a result of its genetic modification, the press release stated. Human genes were also added to the animal organ through genetic editing.
US surgeons perform first pig-to-human kidney transplant https://t.co/0HEARlyOh3 pic.twitter.com/2uQ8cjA9BY
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 21, 2024
Slayman suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, the press release revealed. He received a kidney transplant at MGH from a deceased donor in 2018 and stopped dialysis, which he was on for seven years before the procedure. Dialysis is a treatment that assist the body with the removal of fluids and waste in the absence of functional kidneys, The Hill reported. (RELATED: Surgeons Attach Pig Liver To Brain-Dead Human Body)
Slayman’s first transplanted kidney showed signs of failure, prompting him to restart dialysis in May 2023, according to the press release. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Expanded Access Protocol allowing patients to undergo experimental treatment approved Slayman’s pig kidney transplant in February. Dr. Winfred Williams, his nephrologist, recommended the procedure, Slayman explained in a statement quoted in the press release.
“The continued success of this groundbreaking kidney transplant represents a true milestone in the field of transplantation. It also represents a potential breakthrough in solving one of the more intractable problems in our field, that being unequal access for ethnic minority patients to the opportunity for kidney transplants due to the extreme donor organ shortage and other system-based barriers,” Dr. Williams said of the pig kidney transplant, according to the press release.