Health
Pig Kidney Transplanted Into Human Shows Way to Wider Use
- Organ put in brain-dead man’s body functioning for a month
- Kidneys, livers are in constant shortage for sick patients
The transplant is a breakthrough for scientists to find alternatives to human organs that are in chronic shortage.
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Doctors transplanted a pig’s kidney into a brain-dead man’s body where it continued to function normally, moving the field closer to the possibility of using animal tissue and organs to fight human disease.
The man in his 50s had acute kidney injury and a history of end-stage disease, but his organs produced urine soon after the transplant, according researchers at NYU Langone Health in New York. The transplant was done more than a month ago, and the kidney continues to function, they said Wednesday in a call with reporters.