New York:  New York doctors in a first temporarily transplanted a pig’s kidney onto a human is a significant step towards animal – to – human organ transplant. According to the media reports the NYU Langone Health doctors transplanted the pig kidney to human.

The recipient of the transplant was a brain dead patient, whose kidneys were dysfunctional. The team of doctors kept the woman’s body going on a ventilator after her family agreed to the experiment. To avoid immediate rejection from the human immune system due to the presence of a sugar molecule in pig cells called Glycan, the doctors altered the pig’s genes.

The team of doctors then attached the pig kidney to the patient’s blood vessels, and kept it outside the patient’s body for three days for observation.

The doctors discovered that the kidney had not been rejected by the patient’s autoimmune response. Moreover, the patient’s abnormal creatinine level indicating poor kidney function returned to normal, the report said. Robert Montgomery, a transplant surgeon and lead scientist of the study was quoted that such a surgery can give hope to patients with end-stage kidney failure and become a short term solution till a kidney becomes available, he said.
Animal to human transplants, known as Xenotransplantations, date back to the 17th century, when attempts were made to use animal blood for transfusion.