First clinical trial testing pig kidney transplants in people launches in US

The first clinical trial is getting underway to see if transplanting pig kidneys into people might really save lives.

United Therapeutics, a producer of gene-edited pig kidneys, announced Monday that the study’s initial transplant was performed successfully at NYU Langone Health, a medical centre in New York City.

It’s the latest step in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. A second US company, eGenesis, is preparing to begin its own pig kidney clinical trial in the coming months.

These are the first known clinical trials of what is called xenotransplantation in the world.

To protect the study participant’s identity, researchers aren’t releasing information about when the NYU surgery was performed or further patient information.

NYU's Dr Robert Montgomery, who led the transplant team, said that his hospital has a list of other patients interested in joining the small trial, which will initially include six people. If all goes well, it could be expanded to up to 50 as additional transplant centres join.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is allowing the rigorous studies after a series of so-called “compassionate use” experiments, with mixed results. The first two gene-edited pig kidney transplants were short-lived.

Then doctors began working with patients who badly needed a kidney but weren't as sick as prior recipients. At NYU, a woman’s pig kidney lasted 130 days before she had to return to dialysis.

The latest record, 271 days, was set by a US man transplanted at Massachusetts General Hospital; he is also back on dialysis after the pig organ began declining and was removed last month.

Others known to be living with a pig kidney are another Mass General patient and a woman in China.

“This thing is moving in the right direction" as doctors learn from each patient's experience, Montgomery said. He noted the ability to resume dialysis also gives a safety net.

More than 100,000 people, most needing kidneys, are on the US transplant list, and thousands die waiting.

In a group of eight European countries, more than 10,000 people are on the waiting list for kidneys, according to the Eurotransplant International Foundation, which facilitates organ donations.

As a potential alternative, scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike, meaning they are less likely to be immediately attacked and destroyed by the immune system.

United Therapeutics' trial is testing pig kidneys with 10 gene edits, removing pig genes that trigger early rejection and excessive organ growth and adding some human genes to improve compatibility.