Human-Pig Kidney Transplant Milestone Achieved
looorg writes:
Groundbreaking transplant a step toward solving organ shortage.
Researchers at NYU Langone have managed to attach a pig kidney to a human and get it to work (for 54 hours).
That said a first tiny step perhaps. The process require gene-modified pigs.
PETA etc. object, naturally.
Also at The New York Times:
Surgeons in New York have successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically altered pig to a human patient and found that the organ worked normally, a scientific breakthrough that one day may yield a vast new supply of organs for severely ill patients.
Although many questions remain to be answered about the long-term consequences of the transplant, which involved a brain-dead patient followed only for 54 hours, experts in the field said the procedure represented a milestone.
We need to know more about the longevity of the organ," said Dr. Dorry Segev, professor of transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was not involved in the research. Nevertheless, he said: This is a huge breakthrough. It's a big, big deal."
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