In a a first, Pig kidney transplanted into a human being with successful outcome in US

Oct. 20: For the first time in the history of medical science, a team of New York surgeons have successfully attached a pig kidney to a human patient. This is an early but significant step towards resolving the critical shortage of human organs and offering a ray of hope for the large numbers of people on wait lists for life-saving transplants.

The procedure done at NYU Langone Health in New York City involved use of a pig whose genes had been altered so that its tissues no longer contained a molecule known to trigger almost immediate rejection. The recipient was a brain-dead patient with signs of kidney dysfunction whose family consented to the experiment before she was due to be taken off of life support.

For three days, the new kidney was attached to her blood vessels and maintained outside her body, giving researchers access to it. The kidney filtered waste and produced urine and did not trigger rejection, said the doctors who performed the transplant.