1st recipient of pig kidney transplant dies, hospital confirms

A person with end-stage renal illness who earlier this yr turned the primary human to obtain a brand new kidney from a genetically modified pig has died, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston mentioned.

“The Mass General transplant team is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman,” the hospital mentioned in a press release on Saturday. “We have no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant.”

Slayman, 62, of Weymouth, Massachusetts, obtained the transplant in March in a four-hour surgical procedure that the hospital on the time known as “a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients.”

“Our family is deeply saddened about the sudden passing of our beloved Rick but take great comfort knowing he inspired so many,” Slayman’s household mentioned in a press release.

Slayman had obtained a transplant of a human kidney on the identical hospital in 2018 after seven years on dialysis, however the organ failed after 5 years and he had resumed dialysis remedies.

The kidney was supplied by eGenesis of Cambridge, Massachusetts, from a pig that had been genetically edited to take away genes dangerous to a human recipient and add sure human genes to enhance compatibility, based on the hospital. The firm additionally inactivated viruses inherent to pigs which have the potential to contaminate people.

Kidneys from equally edited pigs raised by eGenesis had efficiently been transplanted into monkeys that have been stored alive for a median of 176 days. In one case, for greater than two years, researchers reported in October within the journal Nature.

Drugs used to assist stop rejection of the pig organ by the affected person’s immune system included an experimental antibody known as tegoprubart, developed by Eledon Pharmaceuticals, based on the hospital.

According to a knowledge tracker maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing, greater than 100,000 individuals within the U.S. await an organ for transplant, with kidneys within the best demand.

NYU surgeons had beforehand transplanted pig kidneys into brain-dead individuals.

A University of Maryland crew in January 2022 transplanted a genetically modified pig coronary heart right into a 57-year-old man with terminal coronary heart illness, however he died two months later.