PIG organ transplants could be used to tackle deadly kidney disease, scientists believe.
Surgeons in the US have successfully got gene-edited kidneys from a pig working inside a brain-dead human patient.
AlamyScientists hope to use animals to grow organs for transplant to humans[/caption]
They say it achieved “life-sustaining kidney function” for the full seven-day study.
The Frankenstein-style operation was first carried out in 2021 and experts now say it is time to try it on living patients.
It is hoped people with chronic kidney disease – around 7.2million people in the UK – could one day be saved by organs grown in animals.
NHS patients currently wait an average of two to three years for a kidney transplant from a deceased donor, and there are more than 5,500 people on the wait list.
Writing in the journal Jama Surgery, Dr Jayme Locke, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said: “Previous reports of pig-to-human kidney xenotransplant have shown urine production but not creatinine clearance, a necessary function to sustain life.
“The findings from this case show that pig-to-human xenotransplant provided life-sustaining kidney function in a deceased human with chronic kidney disease.
“Future research in living human recipients is necessary.”
The current research was conducted on a 52-year-old man who had stage 2 chronic kidney disease when he was declared brain-dead.
As part of the study, the man had both his kidneys removed and dialysis stopped.
Scientists then edited the 10 specific genes in a pig to switch off sections of DNA that previous trials found increased the risk of a human body rejecting the organs.
The kidneys were then transplanted into the man in the same way as they would be if they were from a human donor.
The organs started making urine within four minutes of the op, producing more than 37 litres in the first 24 hours.
They continued to function for the whole seven-day study and were still working when it was brought to an end.
Dr Locke said the progress was “truly extraordinary”.