First pig-to-human kidney transplant performed
A Boston medical team successfully transplanted the organ from a genetically edited pig.
A 62-year-old man with end-stage renal disease has become the first human to receive a new kidney from a genetically modified pig, US doctors have announced.
The patient, Richard Slayman, was recovering well following the four-hour surgery, performed on 16 March by surgeons from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
His new kidney began producing urine shortly after the operation and he was expected to be discharged soon, the doctors said in a Massachusetts General Hospital statement.
Mr Slayman had received a transplant of a human kidney at the same hospital in 2018 after seven years on dialysis, but the organ failed after five years and he had resumed dialysis treatments.
