The first patient ever to undergo an organ transplant from a genetically modified pig has been released from hospital as doctors say he is ‘recovering well’.
Richard Slayman, 62, of Boston, was living with end-stage kidney disease when he received a pig kidney. Experts say this will herald a new era in organ transplantation.
Two previous heart transplants in pigs failed, but Mr Slayman returns home just two weeks after his groundbreaking procedure with ‘one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time’.
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said this the new kidney performs all its crucial functions: producing urine, removing waste products from the blood, and balancing the body’s fluids.
There are more than 100,000 patients on the waiting list for a new kidney in the US, with most facing delays of at least three years.
Richard Slayman, 62, has become the first patient ever to survive after an organ transplant from an animal. Two previous heart recipients died
Mr. Slayman, who had surgery on March 16, said he has “the cleanest bill of health I’ve had in a long time.”
Mr. Slayman said: ‘This moment – leaving the hospital today with one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time – is one I’ve wished would come for years.
“Now it’s a reality and one of the happiest moments of my life.”
He said his care was “exceptional” and thanked his medical team.
The ‘milestone’ four-hour procedure took place on March 16.
Doctors at Mass Gen had genetically altered a pig using 69 DNA modifications in preparation for transplantation.
Those modifications would protect against a virus that infects pigs, but also remove pig genes and add human genes to make the organ compatible with humans.
Mr. Slayman said, “I have been a patient at Mass General Transplant Center for 11 years and have the utmost confidence in the physicians, nurses and clinical staff who have cared for me.”
“I saw it not only as a way to help me, but also as a way to offer hope to the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”
Slayman had been on dialysis for seven years before the transplant.
He had previously undergone a kidney transplant from a deceased human donor performed at MGH in December 2018, but it failed five years later and Mr. Slayman resumed dialysis in May 2023.
Each year, about 5,000 people on the kidney waiting list die before receiving the organ, while one in ten patients on the liver waiting list die before their transplant.
The doctors make an incision in the thigh bone and use instruments to dig a tunnel to the area where the kidney is located.
Dr. Winefred Williams, one of Mr Slayman’s doctors, said: ‘The continued success of this groundbreaking kidney transplant is a real milestone in the field of transplantation.
“An abundant supply of organs resulting from these technological advances can go far in ultimately achieving healthcare equity and providing the best solution for kidney failure – a properly functioning kidney – to all patients in need.”
Meanwhile, Dr Leonardo Riello, who led the transplant team, said: ‘Seventy years after the first kidney transplant and sixty years after the advent of immunosuppressive drugs, we are on the cusp of a monumental breakthrough in the field of transplantation.’
‘At MGH alone, more than 1,400 patients are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Unfortunately, some of these patients will die or become too ill to be transplanted due to the long wait for dialysis. I firmly believe that xenotransplantation is a promising solution to the organ shortage crisis.”
The two previous operations to transplant pig hearts into humans failed after their bodies started rejecting the organs, meaning the body fights it as if it were a virus or invading bacteria.
Rejection is always a risk with transplantation and can occur from the first week after transplantation up to three months afterwards.
The field of xenotransplantation, or transplantation of an animal, is an exciting new development in the field of organ transplantation.
Mike Curtis, CEO of the company that supplied the pig, eGenesis, said: ‘This represents a new frontier in medicine and demonstrates the potential of genome engineering to change the lives of millions of patients suffering from kidney failure worldwide.’
With immunosuppressants, doctors at MGH have shown that it is possible. About 17 people on the transplant waiting list die every day.
All U.S. transplants of animal organs into living humans have received FDA approval under “compassionate use,” which is intended for cases where the person’s life is at risk and no comparable treatments exist.
But so far there have been no clinical trials in humans to test how well it works.
