First pig kidneys transplanted into two humans: what scientists think

Kidney failures has been a very serious medical issue for decades, but does it justify desperate measures. 

"In 2018, 785,883 Americans had kidney failure, and needed dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive (2 in every 1,000 people). 554,038 of these patients received dialysis to replace kidney function and 229,887 lived with a kidney transplant." (Source)

The story about these xenotransplants is a little bit bizarre! This story does not exactly instill confidence in medicine and its practitioners!

These two cases of kidney xenotranspantations raises some serious ethical questions! We do not even learn whether these two patients previously consented to this kind of treatment. We only have to assume.

The two patients, who received the kidney Xenotransplant, were legally dead at the time?

Exactly how long did these two patients survive? Where these two patients monitored for the whole time?

Apparently, up to 54 hours after the xenotransplant was performed things worked out quite well, but what happened after?

"... In their transplant tests, which they performed in September and November 2021, Montgomery and his colleagues used pigs that had been genetically engineered to lack a gene for a protein called alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase (αGal). The pig version of αGal triggers the human immune system to reject xenotransplants (organs transferred from a different species). With each kidney that the researchers transplanted, they also transplanted a pig thymus, an organ that produces immune cells and helps the body accept the foreign organs.

They tested these “thymokidneys” in two people who had been declared legally dead one to two days earlier because they did not have brain function. ..."

From the abstract:

"... CONCLUSIONS

Genetically modified kidney xenografts from pigs remained viable and functioning in brain-dead human recipients for 54 hours, without signs of hyperacute rejection. (Funded by Lung Biotechnology.)"

First pig kidneys transplanted into people: what scientists think The genetically modified organs seemed to function for more than two days but some researchers are sceptical that the experiments had value.

Results of Two Cases of Pig-to-Human Kidney Xenotransplantation (no public access)