Surgeons in Massachusetts A general hospital has removed genetically modified pigs from a 67-year-old Hampshire man after a period of kidney failure, the hospital confirmed in a statement. The organ worked for about nine months, longer than previous pig drug transplants, before it was removed on October 23.
Tim Andrews received a kidney transplant on January 25 after receiving dialysis for more than two years due to end-stage kidney disease. His unusual blood type meant he faced a longer waiting period for a kidney donor than most patients, who wait an average of three to five years for a kidney.
The shortage of human donors has led scientists to look to animals as a potential source of organs. Kidneys are in high demand, with nearly 90,000 people waiting to receive one in the US alone. Due to the shortage of organs, the US will only perform 28,000 kidney transplants by 2024.
Pig organs are being tested as an option, although genetic differences between pigs and humans mean they would be quickly rejected for human transplants. So scientists turned to genetic editing to make pig organs more compatible with the human body, and so far they have made future purchases.
Andrew was the fourth person in the world to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig. The first, Richard Slayman, who was rescued from Massachusetts General, died in May 2024 about two months after his transplant. The second person, Lisa Pisano, had a combined kidney transplant and heart bypass surgery at New Langone Health, but had her kidney removed in May 2024 after two months of failure. Pisano later died. Tantana Looney becomes the third recipient of a kidney, also in New Langone, and lives with the organ for more than four months before surgeons removed it in April this year due to organ rejection.
Since Andrews’ surgery, a patient in China has received a planned pig, and surgeons at Massachusetts General have transplanted another patient, 54-year-old Bill Stewart, bringing the total number of people known to have received a pig’s kidney to six.
Before the pig kidney transplant, two patients received genetic pig hearts at the University of Maryland in 2022 and 2023 but were never healthy enough to leave the hospital. Both died within two months of their procedures.
