Pig Kidney Successfully Transplanted Into a Human Body

N.Y.U. Langone Health’s surgical team was successful in performing a kidney transplant with a pig’s kidney.

Surgeons at the New York University’s Langone Transplant Institute have successfully attached a pig kidney to a human body without it being rejected by the body. This is a scientific breakthrough in the efforts to transplant animal organs into humans, a process known as xenotransplantation. 

The kidney and a thymus gland were attached to the outside of the upper thigh of a brain-dead recipient, who was also a registered organ donor. The surgeons then observed the organ working properly and producing urine for over two days. 

The kidney came from a genetically modified animal, which eliminated the type of sugar found in pig kidneys that causes the human body to normally reject them. Pig kidneys do, however, naturally lack another type of sugar that provokes immediate rejection upon transplantation. Immune-system depressants were also used to further ensure that rejection wouldn’t occur.

It is still unclear whether the kidney will fully function the same way as a human kidney inside a human body, but scientists are hopeful. Regardless, there is a plethora of work that needs to be done before these types of transplants are readily available, including further trials, result replication, and a number of Federal Drug Administration approvals. 

Pigs show immense promise for use in xenotransplantation due to the similarity in size and anatomy of pig and human organs. Pig heart valves are already used in humans. 

Of course, there have been many ethical issues raised in light of this breakthrough, including whether or not it is ethical to breed and genetically modify pigs for the purpose of organ harvesting. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement, “Pigs aren’t spare parts and should never be used as such just because humans are too self-centered to donate their bodies to patients desperate for organ transplants.”

Robert Montgomery, the lead investigator on the N.Y.U. research project, remarked, “The traditional paradigm that someone has to die for someone else to live is never going to keep up.” 

Additionally, in a press conference following the experiment, Montgomery said, “We use pigs as a source of food, we use pigs for medicinal uses—for valves, for medication. I think it's not that different." But, he also added that  "just because we can doesn't mean we should. I think the community at large needs to answer these questions.”

Kidneys are the most in-demand organ in the U.S.—90,000 out of the 100,000 patients on donation waitlists are waiting for a kidney. 12 people from this waitlist die every day, and even more die from kidney failure every day. Progress in the field of xenotransplantation signals a more realistic probability of surgery for many of these individuals. Nonetheless, the ethical questions remain, and the issue of availability and cost of such procedures is one that has yet to be addressed.