The first-ever investigational transplantation of a genetically engineered, nonhuman kidney was performed on a human body in the USA. This has marked a major step in utilizing alternative organs for people suffering from life-threatening diseases. The xenotransplantation surgery was a two-hour-long procedure led by a team of surgeons at NYU Langone Health. The kidney was obtained from a genetically engineered pig, which was transplanted into a brain dead patient.
With the family's consent, the donor was kept on a ventilator for 54 hours while physicians evaluated the kidney's function and looked for indications of rejection. Surgical procedure Glycan or alpha-gal, encoded by a gene that is responsible for a rapid antibody-mediated rejection of porcine organs, was removed from the donor pig. To prevent new immunological reactions to the pig kidney, the pig's thymus gland, which is…
