Historic surgery in the United States.

For the first time, a pig kidney was transplanted to humans. To receive him a woman kept alive artificially with signs of renal dysfunction, whose family agreed to the experiment before disconnecting the life support.

The pig was not just any one, but a genetically modified "GalSafe": before the surgery, performed at New York University Langone Health, its genes had been modified in order to eliminate a molecule in the tissues that causes almost immediate rejection in the body human.

For three days, the new kidney was attached to the woman's blood vessels and kept outside the body, allowing the researchers to do all the necessary studies and analyzes.

The results of tests on transplanted kidney function appeared "fairly normal," said Robert Montgomery, the surgeon who led the study. The kidney produced "the amount of urine one would expect" from a transplanted human kidney. added, and there was no evidence of rejection: the recipient's abnormal creatinine level - an indicator of poor kidney function - returned to normal soon after the operation.

A very important experiment, which could potentially solve the problem of the shortage of human organs for transplantation. Meanwhile, it paves the way for trials on patients with end-stage renal failure "in the next year or two," Montgomery said. It could become a short-term solution for critically ill patients waiting for a human kidney, for example. In short, to avoid people dying while waiting for a donor.

Before asking the woman's family to intervene, Montgomery concluded, the researchers worked with medical, legal and religious ethics experts.

(Unioneonline / D)

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