Photo: Massachusetts General Hospital
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Surgeons at Mass General Hospital made history this past weekend by performing the world's first transplant of a genetically edited pig kidney into a living person.
MGH announced the successful transplant Thursday, calling it a "major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients."
A surgical team led by Dr. Leonardo V. Riella, Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, and Dr. Nahel Elias performed the four-hour procedure at MGH on Saturday.
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The patient, Richard Slayman, a 62-year-old Weymouth man living with end-stage kidney disease, is recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon, MGH said.
Slayman received a human kidney transplant in December 2018, but when the organ showed signs of failure around five years later, his nephrologist suggested a pig kidney transplant.
1 of 2 Photo: Massachusetts General Hospital
2 of 2 Photo: Massachusetts General Hospital
Hospital officials said the groundbreaking procedure was the result of five years of work between MGH and eGenesis of Cambridge. Scientists made 69 genomic edits to the organ, removing harmful pig genes and adding certain human genes to improve its compatibility, while also inactivating porcine retroviruses in the pig donor to eliminate the risk of infection.
"The success of this transplant is the culmination of efforts by thousands of scientists and physicians over several decades," Kawai said. "We are privileged to have played a significant role in this milestone. Our hope is that this transplant approach will offer a lifeline to millions of patients worldwide who are suffering from kidney failure."
"I want to thank everyone at MGH who has cared for me, especially Dr. Williams, Dr. Kawai, the surgeon who performed my first kidney transplant and now this one, and Dr. Riella, who has orchestrated the logistics behind this new transplant," said Slayman. "They have supported me during every step of the journey, and I have faith they will continue to do so."
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