In other words, Robert A. Montgomery, a surgeon at Langone Medical Center at New York University in the United States, led the team to perform a very special operation -
They transplanted pig kidneys into humans, and they succeeded.
Underwent surgery on a female patient who had died of brain death, relied on machines to sustain her life, and developed symptoms of renal insufficiency.
After asking for the consent of the patient's family, the doctor decided to perform the operation.
(Porcine kidneys ready for transplantation)
On September 25, after more than two hours of surgery, doctors attached a genetically modified pig kidney to a large blood vessel on the outside of the patient's abdomen that leads to the thigh.
The doctors observed that the pig's kidney was transplanted and almost immediately began work.
In the next 54 hours, the pig kidneys looked pink and healthy, and soon began to filter the waste, producing urine, and did not have the severe rejection they expected.
The patient's previous creatinine level was abnormal, and the indicators slowly recovered after the operation.
(Schematic)
Transplanting a pig kidney to a human, which is the first case in the world,
And there was no rejection reaction for three days, which was not a small breakthrough.
Dr. Montgomery, the chief surgeon, introduced,
"It was better than we expected."
"We have observed that the effect of this transplantation of pig kidneys is basically similar to that of transplanting human kidneys, and its function is similar to that of human kidneys."
"This gives us new confidence that it can be extended to the clinic in the future."
"Ten years later, I think we can transplant organs from pigs."
(Dr. Montgomery)
The success of the surgery has greatly encouraged the doctors, who are planning to carry out experimental transplants of pigs' livers, lungs and hearts in the future.
Just heard that transplanting pig kidneys into people seems quite absurd,
But in fact, this time it is not an ordinary pig kidney, but the kidney of a genetically modified pig, which is mainly to prevent rejection.
Transplanting pig organs is not a new idea, some have been successful,
For example, transplanting pig heart valves to people, extracting blood supplements with pig blood, grafting pig skin to scalded people, and Chinese doctors successfully transplanting pig corneas.
In terms of volume and other factors, pig organs are very suitable for human use.
Researchers have done similar experiments in the past, transplanting pig organs into primates other than humans.
Human patients to do organ transplant surgery, must have a suitable organ source,
According to the Joint Website for Organ Sharing, there are currently nearly 107,000 people in the United States waiting for an organ transplant.
More than 9,000 of them were waiting for a kidney transplant, while the waiting time for a suitable kidney source averaged 3-5 years, and 12 people died every day.
Dr. Montgomery, himself a recipient of a heart transplant, understood the anxiety of waiting for organs.
"You have to wait for one person to die and another to have a chance to live, and this traditional approach certainly can't keep up with demand."
"I understand this concern in particular, as about 40 percent of patients currently awaiting a transplant die before they receive a transplant."
If animal organs suitable for transplantation to humans can be found, the waiting time of patients can be greatly shortened, increasing the chances of survival.
So for decades, experts have been studying the possibility of transplanting animal organs into humans.
But there are always difficulties in the issue of "rejection".
The genetically modified pig kidney used by Dr. Montgomery's team is to use gene editing to knock out the alpha-gal of the pig gene that is easy to cause rejection.
This is a galactose that causes the human immune system to attack immediately,
Knocking it out is hoping to reduce the possibility of rejection.
However, the success of an experimental operation does not mean that the operation is no problem.
If you want to promote it, there are still many problems that need to be solved.
This time, the pig kidneys were only retained for 54 hours, and then they were removed from the human body, just to do an experiment.
There are also many safety issues that doctors must figure out before they are promoted.
Dr. Montgomery said that the use of this method in the future is likely to be less suitable for patients with human kidneys, or patients who do not have a good effect after dialysis.
In the future, similar experiments may also appear to be a variety of new problems waiting for them to solve.
In addition to the problem of effect, there are also ethical and moral problems.
The genetically modified pigs used this time were cultured by Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, who raised a total of 100 similar pigs under strictly controlled conditions.
Last December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the company's use of meta-edited pigs for human food and drugs.
However, more documents are needed to promote pig organ transplantation in the clinic.
Genetically modified pigs are a very reliable source of organs, if the demand is large, as long as you raise more on the line,
But some people will feel that this is human exploitation of animals, endangering the welfare of animals, and violating ethics and morality.
This worry is not superfluous, and in the comments of Twitter netizens, both people have liked new breakthroughs in medicine, and some people have complained for animals.
Good news! In this way, without going through a long wait, it is also possible to solve the root cause of people going to the black market to trade organs.
Hopefully, in the long run, those organ recipients won't have a problem.
Remarkable, this can solve the problem of buying kidneys and selling kidneys on the black market.
We kill animals to eat and organs.
So
From a successful experiment to clinical promotion,
There's still a long way to go....