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A pig kidney transplanted into a brain-dead man continued to function for two months, the longest a non-human organ has survived in a human.
The operation, performed on July 14, transplanted a kidney to 58-year-old Maurice “Mo” Miller, whose family donated his body after he was declared dead by neurological criteria and kept with a beating heart on ventilator support.
The experiment ended on Wednesday when doctors removed the genetically modified organ, and Miller’s sister said her final goodbyes.
“I’m so proud of you,” Mary Miller Duffy said as she cried at her brother’s bedside.
Surgeons at NYU Langone Health, who conducted the trial, did not identify any differences in how pig kidneys interact with human hormones, secrete antibiotics, or side effects associated with the drugs.
It is the latest in a series of developments that are renewing hope in animal-to-human organ transplants, or transplants, after decades of failure as human immune systems attack foreign tissue.
In a previous attempt, the organ lasted only 72 hours before it was rejected.
The experiment was conducted on 58-year-old Maurice “Mo” Miller, whose family donated his body after he was declared dead by neurological criteria and kept with a beating heart on ventilator support.
The pig kidney had one gene modified, a sugar molecule found on the surface of pig cells that can trigger the human immune system to attack pig organs.
“It looks beautiful, it’s exactly the way a normal kidney looks,” said Dr. Jeffrey Stern, a co-author of the research.
These statements were made after the kidney had been removed for closer examination.
“It’s a combination of excitement and relief,” Dr. Robert Montgomery, a transplant surgeon who led the trial, told The Associated Press.
“Two months is a long time to get a pig kidney in this good condition. This gives you a lot of confidence for the next attempts.”
Montgomery, a heart transplant recipient himself, sees animal-to-human organ transplants as critical to alleviating the country’s organ shortage.
There are more than 100,000 people on the national waiting list, most of them in need of a kidney, and thousands will die while waiting.
Montgomery has performed organ transplants thousands of times, but always on people with human organs.
“Somewhere in the back of your mind is the enormity of what you’re doing… with the realization that this could have a huge impact on the future of organ transplantation,” Montgomery said.
Surgeons removed the pig’s kidney (pictured) on Wednesday and found it was still in good condition
Next steps: The researchers took about 180 tissue samples — from every major organ, lymph nodes, and digestive tract — to look for any signs of problems due to the organ transplant.
Karen Maschke, a researcher at the Hastings Center who helps develop ethical and policy recommendations for clinical trials of organ transplants, cautioned that trials on dead people cannot predict that organs will perform the same way in the living.
The mission began in the early morning of July 14 when Drs. Adam Griesemer and Jeffrey Stern flew hundreds of miles to a facility that housed Virginia-based ReviveCor genetically engineered pigs to restore kidneys lacking a gene that would trigger immediate destruction by the human immune system.
The team then set off for New York when Montgomery removed Miller’s kidneys.
One of the animal’s organs was used in the experiment, and the other was stored away for comparison when the investigation concludes next month.
“This case represents one of the first functional kidney transplants from a pig to a human, and shows proof of principle that organs from a genetically modified animal can replace the function of a human kidney for one week,” said Toby Coates, a professor of medicine at the University of Adelaide who was not involved in the trial. Without rejecting it and using traditional drug treatment for kidney transplantation.
“I’m so proud of you,” Mary Miller Duffy (right) said in a tearful farewell at her brother’s bedside.
Pictured is Miller as a child with his sister Mary
“The key advances here are the genetic removal of four pig genes that had previously proven to be a barrier to successful cross-species transplantation, the introduction of six human genes that prevent blood clotting and the ‘humanization’ of the pig kidney to look more human-like (10 gene-altered donor pigs). ‘
In 2022, about 26,000 people received a kidney transplant. Meanwhile, approximately 808,000 people in the United States have end-stage kidney disease.
These statistics likely helped convince Miller’s family to donate his body, as they were initially hesitant.
“I struggled with that,” his sister, Mary Miller Duffy, told the AP. But he loved helping others, and I think that’s what my brother wanted. So I showed them my brother.”
She added: “He will be in the medical books, and he will live forever.”
(Tags for translation) Daily Mail