The world's first successful case of using pig kidney as a bridge to wait for human kidney transplant

After receiving a pig kidney transplant, a man in the United States set a record of surviving on pig kidneys for nine months without requiring dialysis. Although the transplanted pig kidney later lost its function, the man successfully waited for a human donor kidney and completed the transplant. This is the world's first successful case of using a pig kidney as a "bridge" to wait for an organ transplant.

The British Guardian reported on the 3rd that Tim Andrews, a 66-year-old American man, received a gene-edited pig kidney at Massachusetts General Hospital in January last year. At that time, he was suffering from end-stage renal failure due to type 2 diabetes. His condition was serious. The chance of waiting for a human kidney donation within 5 years was only 9%, and the risk of death or being removed from the transplant waiting list was more than 40%.

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Andrews lived with this pig kidney for 271 days, setting the record for the longest survival without dialysis after receiving a pig kidney xenotransplantation. He described the transplant as a "miracle" that allowed him to resume daily household chores such as cooking, vacuuming the floor, and taking his dog for long walks.

Although the transplanted pig kidney was removed due to failure in October last year, allowing Andrews to resume dialysis, several months later he finally received a kidney from a deceased donor.

A report published in The Lancet on the 3rd pointed out that the human kidney transplanted this time functioned well during the 6-month follow-up period, and no new antibodies to human tissue were found, indicating that the previous transplantation of a pig kidney did not increase the risk of subsequent human kidney transplant failure, and no swine viruses or other pig pathogens were detected.

Leonardo Riella, a physician at the Nephrology and Transplantation Science Center at Mass General Brigham Health System who published the report, said that the medical team's idea is to first use xenotransplantation as a "bridge" during the waiting period for a human kidney transplant, allowing patients to get rid of kidney dialysis. If long-term safety and durability are confirmed in the future, it may even become a formal treatment option.

The medical team also reminded that this is only one case at present and there is no comparable case, and that this result reflects the strict selection of patients and the intensive specialized care that may not be generally available elsewhere. Clinical trials like Andrews will be needed in the future. However, the results open the door to pig kidney transplantation, making it a bridge solution on the long road to human kidney transplantation.