Surgeon manipulated pig kidneys on fourth patient

A Boston surgeon last month had successfully implanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a 66-year-old man with kidney failure, Massachusetts General Hospital announced Friday.

It was the fourth pig kidney transplant in the United States and the first of three to be performed at Mass General as part of a new clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Two of the previous patients died immediately after the procedure, including those who were seriously ill before the implantation.

Over 100,000 people across the country are on the waiting list for transplanted organs, mostly kidneys, but there is a sudden shortage of human donor organs. Many will die while they wait.

To alleviate the shortage, several biotechnology companies are compiling pig genes to ensure that organs are not easily rejected by the human body.

The new clinical trial using organs produced by Biotech Company Egenesis is one of two studies of genetically modified animal organs that received a green light from regulators earlier this week. The other, sponsored by United Therapeutics Corporation, will start with six patients later this year, with the number likely to eventually increase to 50.

The latest transplant recipient, Tim Andrews of Concord, New Hampshire, had surgery in late January and was enough to be discharged a week later.

“When I left the recovery room and went to the intensive care unit, I actually did tap-dance between the table and the bed,” Andrews said in an interview Thursday. “I'm so happy, that's incredible.”

Andrews has been on kidney dialysis for over two years and endured hours of treatment every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. They mostly tired him and made him nauseous, so he couldn't do much work around the house.

He suffered a heart attack shortly after he began dialysis, and in August last year he was using a wheelchair when he began discussing the possibility of a transplant with a large number of regular doctors. They told him he had to take a better shape for the surgery, so he began walking with physical therapy.

Like Towana Looney, an Alabama woman who received a pig kidney at Nyu Langone Health in November, Andrews said he felt better than he had been in years after the surgery.

“It's like a new engine. Suddenly, an energy machine was poured in,” he said.

Even if pig organs prove to be safe and effective, it is unclear what costs them and whether insurance covers them. Most patients experiencing renal failure are unable to work and are eligible for Medicare under the government's health plan.

The kidneys that Andrews received came from pigs that had been subjected to 69 gene-edited, including 59, which inactivates pig retroviruses, to reduce the risk of infection in humans.

Last year, two patients who received a transplant that included a pig kidney had surgery in New York and died shortly after a procedure involving Lisa Pisano, New Jersey, whose kidneys were designed by United Therapeutics Corporation. Mass general kidneys.

But Dr. Kawai, a leading surgeon involved in Mass General's business, said doctors are constantly learning.

The goal is to “make genetically edited pig organs a viable and long-term solution for patients,” Dr. Kawai said in a statement. “There's a long way to go to make that happen, but this port is an important next step.”