US surgeons say they have successfully given a pig’s kidney to a person in a transplant breakthrough they hope could ultimately solve donor organ shortages.
The recipient was brain dead meaning they were already on artificial life support with no prospect of recovering.
The kidney came from a pig that had been genetically modified to stop the organ from being recognised by the body as “foreign” and being rejected.
The work is not yet peer-reviewed or published but there are plans for this.
Experts say it is the most advanced experiment in the field so far.
Similar tests have been done in non-human primates, but not people, until now.
Using pigs for transplants is not a new idea though. Pig heart valves are already widely used in humans.
And their organs are a good match for people when it comes to size.
Source: BBC News
