Mumbai, September 15: US doctors who used a genetically modified pig kidney to revive a brain-dead patient revealed on Thursday said that their record-breaking 61-day experiment was over. The most recent experimental treatment, which primarily tests the method on corpses donated for science, is a part of a burgeoning field of study targeted at developing cross-species transplants.

In the United States, there are more than 103,000 persons in need of organ transplants, 88,000 of whom require kidneys. There is much reason for optimism for the future, according to Robert Montgomery, director of the New York University Langone Transplant Institute, who oversaw the operation in July. We have learned a great deal over these past two months of close observation and analysis, he said. Kidney Swap Transplant in Rajasthan: Six Families in Jaipur Swap Kidneys To Give New Lease of Life to Their Loved Ones; Recipients and Donors Doing Well, Says Doctor.

It was Montgomery's fifth so-called xenotransplant; in September 2021, he also performed the first kidney transplant of a genetically engineered pig. The study's tissue samples showed that a moderate rejection process had started, necessitating an increase in immunosuppressive medication.

The NYU Langone team was able to halt initial rejection by "knocking out" the gene encoding the biomolecule alpha-gal, a popular target for wandering human antibodies. The donor pig used in this study came from a herd that Virginia-based biotech firm Revivicor had raised. The Food and Drug Administration has also given the herd approval as a meat source for persons who have an allergy to some tick bites, known as alpha-gal hypersensitivity. US Surgeons Successfully Test Pig Kidney Transplant in Human Patient. 

Since these pigs are breeders rather than clones, the method can be scaled up more simply. A baboon heart was transplanted into a baby known as "Baby Fae" in 1984, but she only lived for 20 days. This is an example of early xenotransplantation research that concentrated on extracting organs from monkeys. As a result of the size of their organs, their quick growth, their high litter sizes, and the fact that they are being reared for food, pigs are the main focus of current research.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 15, 2023 10:09 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).