Organ donations have surged in the United States, partly thanks to improved harvesting methods

Good news!

"Organ donations have surged in the United States, partly thanks to improved harvesting methods.

Until recently, most organs came from donors who were brain dead but kept on life support, with their circulatory systems still functioning.

Over the past decade, however, advances in organ preservation and recovery have made it increasingly feasible to recover organs after circulatory death [DCD], when the heart has stopped and preservation becomes far more difficult.

A recent study finds that in 2000, just 2 percent of donors fell into this category;
by 2025, that had risen to 49 percent, with the number of such donors rising from 118 to 8,129."

"... Recent innovations have facilitated recovery from medically complex DCD donors.
Normothermic regional perfusion, in which perfusion is restored in situ to limited organs after circulatory death, contributed to the rise in recovery of DCD organs since its use began increasing in 2019.
The regulatory approval of normothermic machine perfusion for livers (2021) contributed to the subsequent acceleration of DCD liver recovery, and normothermic machine perfusion enabled the advent of DCD heart transplantation in 2019.” "

"... By contrast, donation after circulatory death involves donors who do not meet criteria for brain death and who cannot be kept alive without life support machines. In these cases, if the family chooses to stop life support, it is then given the option to do so in an operating room instead of the intensive care unit.
If the patient dies within a set time after support is removed, organs can be recovered and used for transplantation, preserving the opportunity to donate according to the wishes of the family and the patient. ..."

From the abstract:
"Organ transplant improves survival and quality of life, but transplant access is limited by organ shortages.
Transplants in the US predominantly use deceased donor organs, including 75% and 94% of kidney and liver transplants, respectively, and all lung, heart, and pancreas transplants from 2018 to 2025. Improving transplant access therefore relies on expanding the deceased donor pool, including by increasing donation after circulatory death (DCD), in which organs are recovered from donors with irreversible loss of circulatory function.
Factors limiting DCD use include a higher risk of organ dysfunction compared with donation after brain death organs and the increased complexity of DCD organ recovery, which is not possible if the time between life support withdrawal and circulatory death is prolonged. Despite these limitations, the severe organ shortage combined with technological innovations that enhance DCD organ function have increased interest in DCD organ transplant by transplant programs and organ procurement organizations (OPOs), the federal contractors responsible for coordinating US organ recovery and allocation. This study aimed to describe secular trends in DCD donation."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup

DCD Organ Donations Surge in the US

More Organ Donations Now Come from People Who Die After Their Heart Stops Beating (original news release) "As the Donor Pool Grows & More Lifesaving Transplants Become Possible, Public Education Is More Important Than Ever"

Changes in Organ Donation After Circulatory Death in the United States (open access)

DCD = donation after circulatory death, DBD = donation after brain death

Growing engineered liver tissue on demand directly in the body

Good news!

"... “We asked if it would be possible to first implant a small-scale liver construct and then drive it to expand in the body following its engraftment. A sufficiently grown, functional ‘satellite liver’ could immediately relieve the metabolic burden in a damaged liver and help bridge the time until a transplant becomes available,”  ..."

From the abstract:

"Despite the promise of engineered tissue implants for the treatment of organ failure, scaling of these constructs to sizes of therapeutic relevance remains a barrier to clinical translation.

Here, we propose a strategy to circumvent this limitation: to instead implant a small-scale construct and then induce it to grow in situ after its engraftment into a host.

Using engineered liver tissue as a proof-of-concept application, we integrated synthetic biology and tissue engineering tools to build liver tissues that can be expanded on-demand after implantation in vivo.

To achieve this goal, we first identified the combination of Yes-associated protein (YAP) and growth factor (GF) signaling as sufficient to drive human hepatocyte proliferation in dense, three-dimensional engineered tissues.

We then engineered control of these signaling axes using synthetic biology tools to drive human liver tissue expansion both in vitro and in vivo.

As such, this work establishes a genetic strategy for generating large organ implants through bioengineered on-demand outgrowth via synthetic biology triggering (BOOST)."

Growing liver tissue on demand directly in the body "New study combines tissue engineering with synthetic biology tools to grow healthy liver tissue inside the body, and lays foundation for “smart” solid organ therapies"

Synthetic control of implanted engineered liver tissue growth (open access)

Fig. 1. GF and YAP signaling synergize to induce proliferation of dense cultures of HEPs.

The genetic “BOOST” strategy, explained in his graphic, integrates tissue engineering and synthetic biology tools to enable on-demand liver growth inside the body. By specifically rewiring the gene expression of primary liver hepatocytes and supportive fibroblast cells, a tissue growth program is switched on in a small, engineered liver construct after its implantation into recipients and upon addition of an inducing agent (shown as a pill). As a result, the hepatocytes in the construct start and continue to proliferate until a desired construct size has been reached and the inducing signal is not provided anymore. In mice, BOOST resulted in robust and healthy liver growth.

Donor kidney transformed to universal type for the first time, but signs of rejection after two days

Good news! Implanted into an older brain-dead man??? Abuse?

"For the first time, scientists have converted the blood type of a donor kidney and transplanted the organ into a person. The team used an enzyme to remove type-A antigens from the kidney. This made it a type-O organ, which is compatible with all blood types. The organ was transplanted into a 68-year-old brain-dead man and remained healthy for two days before showing signs of rejection. The procedure could improve access to donor organs and reduce wait lists, says transplant clinician  ..."

"... In a first-in-human experiment, the enzyme-converted kidney was transplanted into a brain-dead recipient with consent from the family, allowing researchers to observe the immune response without risking a life.

For two days, the kidney functioned without signs of hyperacute rejection, the rapid immune reaction that can destroy an incompatible organ within minutes.

By the third day, some blood-type markers reappeared, triggering a mild reaction, but the damage was far less severe than in a typical mismatch, and researchers saw signs that the body was beginning to tolerate the organ. ...

The key to this approach is the 2019 discovery by the UBC team of two highly efficient enzymes that remove the sugar that defines type-A blood, effectively converting it to type O. “These enzymes are highly active, highly selective, and work at very low concentrations,” ..."

From the abstract:

"ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation is widely used to meet the escalating need for organs. Current recipient-centric desensitization protocols involving antibody depletion through plasmapheresis increase the risk of infections, perioperative bleeding events and costs.

Here we present a donor-centric desensitization protocol, converting type-A kidneys into enzyme-converted O kidneys during hypothermic perfusion to remove the A antigen from the kidneys.

An ex vivo model resulted in no antibody-mediated injury. Encouraged by this, an enzyme-converted O kidney was transplanted into a type-O brain-dead recipient with a high titre of anti-A antibody, and no hyperacute rejection was observed. The graft was well tolerated with no evidence of antibody-mediated rejection for 2 days.

Antibody-mediated lesions and complement deposition were found starting 3 days post-transplant, coinciding with A-antigen regeneration, and later higher Banff scores, suggesting an immune-mediated response.

Single-cell sequencing confirms the elevated expression of accommodation-related genes, suggesting the potential for longer-term tolerance.

This study provides a donor-centric organ engineering strategy and has the potential to broaden the reach of ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation, improving the fairness of and access to organ allocation."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

First human transplant of kidney modified to have ‘universal’ blood type "Recipient diagnosed with brain death received a type-O organ, which is compatible with all blood types."

UBC enzyme technology clears first human test toward universal donor organs for transplantation (original news release)

Enzyme-converted O kidneys allow ABO-incompatible transplantation without hyperacute rejection in a human decedent model (no public access, but article above contains link to PDF)

First lung transplant from gene-edited pig into a brain-dead patient for first time performed in China. Really!

Ethically very dubious! 

The articles only say that the organ survived a few days. What about the man, who received the organ?

It shows again that the Communist Party of China does not care much about the dignity and sanctity of human life!

According to Nature, this procedure was performed at an military hospital and not at a civilian hospital.

"In a milestone for the newly resurgent field of xenotransplantation, a 39-year-old brain-dead person in China has become the first human to receive a lung from a pig. With consent from the person’s family, researchers took the organ from a CRISPR’d pig, trimmed it, and stitched it into their chest, where it remained for nine days. ..."

"... The man was brain-dead and the organ only lasted 9 days. ... Using brain-dead people to test such organs is an ethical and safe steppingstone for this high-risk research, says Justin Chan, who does heart and lung transplants at NYU Langone Health ..." (Source)

First lung transplant from gene-edited pig performed in China | STAT "Experiment in China shows more work is needed before launching trials with living patients"

Pig lung transplanted into a person in world first "Lungs are complex organs to transplant, but the surgery is a step towards clinical trials."

"Xijing Hospital of the Air Force Medical University/Xinhua via Alamy"

Serious ethical questions concerning heart donations and transplants

Food for thought! Again when does death begin or how long can life be prolonged with the latest medical interventions?

On the life's edge!

What about the last will of the designated donor?

"More than 3500 people in the United States receive a new heart each year."

"New techniques give ‘life’ to hearts after circulatory death

Heart transplant surgeons have long depended on organ donors who have been declared brain dead. More recently, they have also begun to retrieve hearts from people who retain some brain function but die after their heartbeat and circulation both cease—an approach known as donation after circulatory death (DCD).

To ensure that a donor heart still works after it has stopped beating, doctors currently use one of two methods to briefly reanimate the organ.

In some cases, an external device pumps warm, oxygenated blood through the heart after it has been removed. Unfortunately, these machines are extraordinarily expensive, labor-intensive, and often don’t give a realistic assessment of a heart’s function.

The other option, known as normothermic regional perfusion (NRP), restarts the heart while it is still inside the donor’s body—a method that, unlike external devices, can also be used for pediatric hearts. But NRP lies at the center of  a fierce ethical debate. Some critics argue that it blurs the definition of death, and many hospitals prohibit its use.

Now, surgeons at two separate institutions have developed new ways to circumvent these ethical issues.

One approach uses a simplified circuit to temporarily reanimate infants’ hearts on the surgical table—a breakthrough that could potentially expand the donor pool for pediatric heart transplants in the U.S. by up to 20%.

The other strategy , lead study author Aaron Williams explains, challenges a fundamental assumption about heart transplantation: “Do you even need to reanimate the heart?”"

ScienceAdviser

When does life end? New organ donation strategy fuels debate

New transplant techniques keep organ donors’ hearts healthy—even after they stop beating

First baby born in UK to woman with transplanted womb

Amazing stuff! That was about the 135th womb transplant ever carried out globally!

World's First: Man Lives 100 Days with Artificial Titanium Heart with Palki Sharma

Good news! My heart is jumping now!

Australian man survives 100 days with artificial heart in world-first success

Good news!

"... The Australian researchers and doctors behind the operation announced on Wednesday that the implant had been an “unmitigated clinical success” after the man lived with the device for more than 100 days before receiving a donor heart transplant in early March.

The BiVACOR total artificial heart, invented by Queensland-born Dr Daniel Timms, is the world’s first implantable rotary blood pump that can act as a complete replacement for a human heart, using magnetic levitation technology to replicate the natural blood flow of a healthy heart. ..."

Australian man survives 100 days with artificial heart in world-first success | Health | The Guardian "Sydney surgeons ‘enormously proud’ after patient in his 40s receives the Australian-designed implant designed as a bridge before donor heart"

Credits: Techcrunch newsletter

Harvard University: Structural racism impacts kidney transplants. Really!

I bet this is another peace of junk journalism!

The demagoguery of comparing skin colors instead of socio-economic factors etc. Disgusting!

"Despite higher rates of end-stage kidney disease, Black patients face lower access to live-donor kidney transplants. Structural barriers, like residential segregation and the high financial burden of donation, are to blame."

"... Black individuals have an almost four times higher rate of end-stage kidney disease, but their rate of live-donor kidney transplantation is more than four times lower than their White counterparts. ..."

Harvard Public Health Weekly

Why Black patients are less likely to get life-saving kidney transplants "Innate bias [???], residential segregation, and the high cost of donation are all barriers."

First clinical trial for genetically modified pig-organ transplants for patients with end-stage renal disease

Good news!

"The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared biotech firm United Therapeutics to begin the first clinical trial transplanting genetically modified pig organs into humans. The company, which has engineered pigs with ten genetic edits that help the organs evade the human immune system, has already transplanted several kidneys and hearts into individuals on a case-by-case basis. Its new trial aims to transplant pig kidneys into up to 50 people with end-stage renal disease. United Therapeutics’ competitor, eGenesis, plans to ask the FDA to approve another clinical trial using pig organs later this year."

"The first clinical trial testing whether pig kidneys can be safely transplanted into living people has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As part of the trial, which will begin later this year, kidneys from genetically modified pigs will be transplanted into people with chronic kidney disease whose organs no longer function independently. ..."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

The science behind the first pig-organ transplant trial in humans "The small trial will help to establish whether kidneys from genetically modified pigs can be transplanted into people safely and effectively."

United Therapeutics Corporation Announces Fda Clearance Of Its Investigational New Drug Application For The Ukidney Xenotransplantation Clinical Trial

Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston transplanted a modified pig kidney into a living person for the first time in 2024.

Woman Gets First Double Lung Transplant Done by Robot at New York Langone medical center

Good news! Very recommendable!

Less invasive is missing from the list!

In India 80% Organ Donors Are Women, 80% Recipients Are Men, but the data for the rest of the world is similar. Why? With Palki Sharma

Recommendable! I think Palki is wrong to blame mostly patriarchy for this discrepancy. 

‘Nanowarming’ process a game-changer for organ transplantation

Good news!

"A new two-step process that safely rewarms frozen tissues using nanoscale magnetic rods could help preserve donor organs long-term. The procedure provides an alternative to current time-limited methods and paves the way for more life-saving transplantations. ...

Vitrification offers a means of long-term, damage-free preservation of organs. Unlike conventional freezing, which causes liquids to transition into a crystalline state, vitrification uses a cryoprotective agent to keep the fluids in a glass-like, amorphous state as the temperature drops and molecules slow down. The problem is that uniform and rapid heating is needed to prevent the formation of ice crystals. Now, researchers ... have devised a two-step method of safely and quickly thawing and rewarming organs using nanoscale magnetic rods. ..."

From the abstract:

"Rewarming cryopreserved samples requires fast heating to avoid devitrification, a challenge previously attempted by magnetic nanoparticle-mediated hyperthermia. Here, we introduce Fe3O4@SiO2 nanorods as the heating elements to manipulate the heating profile to ensure safe rewarming and address the issue of uneven heating due to inhomogeneous particle distribution. The magnetic anisotropy of the nanorods allows their prealignment in the cryoprotective agent (CPA) during cooling and promotes subsequent rapid rewarming in an alternating magnetic field with the same orientation to prevent devitrification. More importantly, applying an orthogonal static magnetic field at a later stage could decelerate heating, effectively mitigating local overheating and reducing CPA toxicity. Furthermore, this orientational configuration offers more substantial heating deceleration in areas of initially higher heating rates, therefore reducing temperature variations across the sample. The efficacy of this method in regulating heating rate and improving rewarming uniformity has been validated using both gel and porcine artery models."

‘Nanowarming’ process a game-changer for organ transplantation

Scientists use magnetic nanotech to safely rewarm frozen tissues for transplant

Magnetic-Nanorod-Mediated Nanowarming with Uniform and Rate-Regulated Heating (no public access)

The two-step process of rewarming vitrified organs using nanoscale magnetic rods

A new kind of organ retrieval procedure aka normothermic regional perfusion is spreading

Good news!

"To both help alleviate the chronic shortage of organs and improve transplant outcomes, doctors are turning to a new kind of organ retrieval procedure, normothermic regional perfusion (NRP), that produces more, high quality livers, kidneys, and hearts.

 

The procedure replenishes the oxygen deprivation that the organs incur during the dying process, meaning they’re recovered in a healthier state. About half of the nation’s 56 organ procurement organizations have already started using NRP, according to the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations. ..."

Global Health NOW: Vancouver’s Catastrophic Overdose Epidemic; Milk Bank Banned; and More Organs—More Ethical Questions

Exosomes: A Promising Biomarker for Cellular Rejection After Organ Transplant

Good news! Sounds promising! Seems to be an impressive study (from a layman's perspective)!

"Today, patients who receive an organ transplant need repeated surgical biopsies to test for acute cellular rejection (ACR) throughout their lifetimes. But a blood test for ACR could be on the horizon following the discovery of a promising biomarker. ...
Now, a Yale team has found that exosomes from T cells are significantly altered during ACR. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles released by cells that allow them to communicate with each other. ...
However, even when these patients are on immunosuppressants, breakthrough cases of rejection can still occur. ...
However, there is a significant challenge to studying T cell exosomes: A sample of blood contains exosomes from every cell type in the body. ...
his lab has developed a way to enrich T cell exosomes in biological samples to give his team an unparalleled look into how their cargo changes during ACR. ...

In their latest study, the researchers took blood samples from mouse models of heart transplantation and isolated all the exosomes. Then, they used antibody-conjugated bead technology — in which antibodies attached to magnetic beads bind to target molecules — to isolate T cell exosomes. This allowed them to quantify this specific exosome population and study the cargo inside it. They used a technique called quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to identify RNAs and the western blot technique for proteins.

The team discovered dramatic differences in the content of T cell exosomes taken from mouse models undergoing ACR. ..."

From the abstract:

There is a critical need for biomarkers of acute cellular rejection (ACR) in organ transplantation. We hypothesized that ACR leads to changes in donor-reactive T cell small extracellular vesicle (sEV) profiles in transplant recipient circulation that match the kinetics of alloreactive T cell activation. In rodent heart transplantation, circulating T cell sEV quantities (P < .0001) and their protein and mRNA cargoes showed time-specific expression of alloreactive and regulatory markers heralding early ACR in allogeneic transplant recipients but not in syngeneic transplant recipients. Next generation sequencing of their microRNA cargoes identified novel candidate biomarkers of ACR, which were validated by stem loop quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (n = 10). Circulating T cell sEVs enriched from allogeneic transplant recipients mediated targeted cytotoxicity of donor cardiomyocytes by apoptosis assay (P < .0001). Translation of the concept and EV methodologies to clinical heart transplantation demonstrated similar upregulation of circulating T cell sEV profiles at time points of grade 2 ACR (n = 3 patients). Furthermore, T cell receptor sequencing of T cell sEV mRNA cargo demonstrated expression of T cell clones with intact complementarity determining region 3 signals. These data support the diagnostic potential of T cell sEVs as noninvasive biomarker of ACR and suggest their potential functional roles."

Exosomes: A Promising Biomarker for Cellular Rejection After Organ Transplant < Yale School of Medicine

Circulating T cell specific extracellular vesicle profiles in cardiac allograft acute cellular rejection (no public access)

World's First: Mass General Hospital transplants genetically edited pig kidney into 62-year-old Richard Slayman

Good news! Demand for kidney transplants far exceeds supply! Not to mention that there are also individuals selling their kidneys.

The last name of the recipient speaks volumes: Richard “Rick” Slayman

"The renowned Boston teaching hospital announced the world’s first successful transplant today of a genetically edited pig kidney into a 62-year-old ... man living with end-stage kidney disease. ...

Nearly seven decades after the first successful kidney transplant ...

The cutting-edge CRISPR technology was pivotal in this operation, Mass General said.

The pig kidney was provided by eGenesis of Cambridge from a pig donor that was “genetically-edited using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes to improve its compatibility with humans,” the hospital added in a press release this morning. ...

MGH identified the patient as Richard “Rick” Slayman of Weymouth, who is “recovering well” and is expected to be discharged soon. ..."

"... More than 800,000 people in the U.S., and millions globally, suffer from end-stage renal disease or kidney failure, a life-threatening condition for which transplantation is considered the gold standard treatment option to improve quality of life and outcomes. Yet the demand for organs far outpaces supply, with more than 90,000 individuals on the kidney waitlist and approximately 25,000 kidney transplants performed each year. ...
The eGenesis donor kidney (EGEN-2784) used for this procedure is the company’s lead candidate for kidney transplant and carries three classes of edits:

(1) knock out of three genes involved in the synthesis of glycan antigens implicated in hyperacute rejection,

(2) insertion of seven human transgenes involved in the regulation of pathways that modulate rejection: inflammation, innate immunity, coagulation, and complement, and 

(3) inactivation of the endogenous retroviruses in the porcine genome.

eGenesis is the only company in the industry developing organs that carry all three classes of edits to address organ safety and efficacy. Without genetic modification, a porcine kidney would be immediately rejected by a human recipient. ..."

World's First: Mass General transplants pig kidney into a 62-year-old Weymouth man

eGenesis Announces World’s First Successful Transplant of Genetically Engineered Porcine Kidney in a Living Patient

Reversible “Suspended animation” drug could aid organ transplantation and survival from traumatic injury

Good news! Could be a breakthrough!

"... The research ... an important study providing solid evidence that the existing drug, SNC80, can rapidly and reversibly slow biochemical and metabolic activities while preserving cell and tissue viability. The research suggests that SNC80 not only has the potential to ensure donor organs can be preserved safely for longer ahead of transplantation, but could be used to slow the detrimental effects of tissue and organ trauma across a wide range of health emergencies. ...
The conventional approach for achieving this is to lower temperature such that these processes slow down as they would during hibernation. However, prolonged cold storage can damage tissue and the systems currently used to keep cells and tissues alive can be challenging to use at the point of care or when resources are limited. ...
"We set out to identify potential drugs that could slow down metabolism and mimic states normally induced by hypothermia or hibernation. We needed an approach that was inducible in less than an hour and safely reversible – with major tissue functions returning to normal within 24 hours." ..."

From the assessment and abstract:

"eLife assessment

This important study provides a new way to enhance organ preservation. The authors provide solid evidence that an existing drug, SNC80, can rapidly and reversibly slow biochemical and metabolic activities while preserving cell and tissue viability. This study will be of interest to a broad set of readers interested in organ transplantation, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine organoids, and organ-on-a-chip engineering.

Abstract

Drugs that induce reversible slowing of metabolic and physiological processes would have great value for organ preservation, especially for organs with high susceptibility to hypoxia-reperfusion injury, such as the heart. Using whole-organism screening of metabolism, mobility, and development in Xenopus, we identified an existing drug, SNC80, that rapidly and reversibly slows biochemical and metabolic activities while preserving cell and tissue viability. Although SNC80 was developed as a delta opioid receptor activator, we discovered that its ability to slow metabolism is independent of its opioid modulating activity as a novel SNC80 analog (WB3) with almost 1,000 times less delta opioid receptor binding activity is equally active. Metabolic suppression was also achieved using SNC80 in microfluidic human organs-on-chips, as well as in explanted whole porcine hearts and limbs, demonstrating the cross-species relevance of this approach and potential clinical relevance for surgical transplantation. Pharmacological induction of physiological slowing in combination with organ perfusion transport systems may offer a new therapeutic approach for tissue and organ preservation for transplantation, trauma management, and enhancing patient survival in remote and low-resource locations."

“Suspended animation” drug could aid organ transplantation and survival from traumatic injury Study suggests that a pain relief drug can quickly and reversibly induce a sleep-like state in cells and organs could facilitate organ transplantation and prevent irreversible tissue injury

Identification of pharmacological inducers of a reversible hypometabolic state for whole organ preservation (open access)

This illustration explains the ... multi-system, cross-species approach, which started with a computational and literature analysis to predict existing drugs that could induce suspended animation in living organisms 

Woman receives sister's womb in first UK transplant or about the 101 such transplants in the world

Good news!

"The recipient was a 34-year-old woman, and the donor her 40-year-old sister ... Doctors say both recovered well from surgery and the younger sister - with her husband - has several embryos in storage, waiting to be transferred.

A team of more than 30 carried out the procedures, lasting around 17 hours, in adjoining operating theatres at the Churchill hospital in February. ...
"The shocking truth is that there are currently more than 15,000 women of child-bearing age in this country who have Absolute Uterine Factor Infertility. They were either born without a womb or have had a hysterectomy due to cancer or other abnormalities of the womb."

In 2014 a woman in Sweden became the first to have a baby as a result of a womb transplant. She had received a donated womb from a friend in her 60s.

Since then 100 womb transplants have taken place worldwide and around 50 babies have been born, mostly in the US and Sweden, but also in Turkey, India, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Germany and France.

Surgeons in the UK were given permission to begin performing womb transplants in 2015. ..."

Woman receives sister's womb in first UK transplant - BBC News Surgeons in Oxford have carried out the first womb transplant in the UK.

Deceased Donor kidney blood type converted to O in step towards universal organs

Good news! It appears, the specific research paper has not yet been published.

"... The team first tested the technique on pieces of human kidney tissue, before moving on to three full kidneys with blood type B. The process takes about six hours, and was found to reduce blood type antigens in the organs by over 90%. ..."

"The project, funded by charity Kidney Research UK, could increase the supply of kidneys available for transplant, particularly within ethnic minority groups who are less likely to be a match for the majority of donated kidneys. ...

used a normothermic perfusion machine – a device which connects with a human kidney to pass oxygenated blood through the organ to better preserve it for future use – to flush blood infused with an enzyme through the deceased kidney.

The enzyme acted like “molecular scissors” to remove the blood type markers that line the blood vessels of the kidney resulting in the organ being converted to the most common O type.  ..."

Donor kidney blood type converted in step towards universal organs

Cambridge researchers change donor kidney blood type Researchers have been able to alter the blood type of deceased donor kidneys using “molecular scissors”.

The discovery offers hope to ethnic minority patients who struggle to find suitable transplants.

Clinical trials for pig-to-human organ transplants inch closer in the U.S.

Good news! Human volunteers please sign up!

Why does the U.S. FDA even have power over an organ transplant performed in one of the states? Strikes me clearly as too much federal power over the internal affairs of individual states!!! SCOTUS are you listening?

"... Researchers have repeatedly transplanted pig organs into non-human primates, such as baboons, with success. But these experiments don’t simulate human trials perfectly. ...
Physicians see an urgent need for the [human] trials: more than 100,000 people are waiting for organ transplants in the United States alone. ...
In late 2021, for instance, surgeons transferred genetically modified pig kidneys into two legally dead people who had no discernible brain function and were on ventilators. [Was any consent given by survivors etc.?] The kidneys functioned normally over the 54 hours of the test and seemed to produce urine. ...
In January this year, a severely ill man became the first to receive a pig heart, during an operation in Baltimore, Maryland. (The man otherwise faced certain death, so the FDA granted a compassionate-use authorization for the procedure.) ..."

Clinical trials for pig-to-human organ transplants inch closer US regulatory agency signals willingness to allow first xenotransplant trials.