Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'It's A Big, Big Deal': In Milestone, Pig Kidney Successfully Tested In Human
Surgeons in New York have successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically altered pig to a human patient and found that the organ worked normally, a scientific breakthrough that one day may yield a vast new supply of organs for severely ill patients. Although many questions remain to be answered about the long-term consequences of the transplant, which involved a brain-dead patient followed only for 54 hours, experts in the field said the procedure represented a milestone. (Rabin, 10/19)
A pig kidney was successfully tested on a dead patient at a hospital in New York last month for the first time without being immediately rejected. While pig organs are similar to human ones, a sugar in pig cells triggers organ rejection. "It had absolutely normal function," said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the surgical team at NYU Langone Health. "It didn’t have this immediate rejection that we have worried about." Researchers have turned to pigs to help with the kidney donor shortage. Around 12 patients die a day waiting for a kidney. (Stimson, 10/20)
Dr. Robert Montgomery planned for this moment for three years. On an operating table in front of the transplant surgeon was a woman’s body donated precisely for this purpose. The kidney he was about to attach to her came from a pig bred for this day. If the surgery worked, it would show pig organs could be safely used to save human lives. Clamps separated her bloodstream from the pig kidney. Once he released them, the organ would fill with blood. In the worst case scenario, it would rapidly turn blue, a sign her immunity "soldiers" were flooding in to fight off the foreign organ. That could set his field back for years. (Weintraub, 10/20)
Surgeons attached the pig kidney to a pair of large blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient so they could observe it for two days. The kidney did what it was supposed to do — filter waste and produce urine — and didn’t trigger rejection. “It had absolutely normal function,” said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the surgical team last month at NYU Langone Health. “It didn’t have this immediate rejection that we have worried about.” (Johnson, 10/20)
