U.S. Researchers Test Pig-to-Human Transplant in Donated Body
Researchers on Thursday reported the latest in a surprising string of experiments in the quest to save human lives with organs from genetically modified pigs.
This time around, surgeons in Alabama transplanted a pig’s kidneys into a brain-dead man—a step-by-step rehearsal for an operation they hope to try in living patients possibly later this year.
“The organ shortage is in fact an unmitigated crisis and we’ve never had a real solution to it,” said Dr. Jayme Locke of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who led the newest study and aims to begin a clinical trial of pig kidney transplants.
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Similar experiments have made headlines in recent months as research into animal-to-human transplants heats up.
Twice this fall, surgeons at New York University temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient to watch them work. And earlier this month, surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center gave a dying man a heart from a gene-edited pig that so far is keeping him alive.
But scientists still needed to learn more about how to test such transplants without risking a patient’s life. With the help of a family who donated a loved one’s body for science, Locke mimicked the way human organ transplants are done—from removing the pig “donor” kidneys to sewing them inside the deceased man’s abdomen.
For a little over thre...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: LAURAN NEERGAARD / AP Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
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