A woman from Alabama has become the third person to receive a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig, his doctors announced Tuesday.
Towana Looney, 53, stopped undergoing kidney dialysis after undergoing the procedure at NYU Langone Health on November 25. She was released from the hospital on December 6 and her doctors say she is in good health. His surgery is the latest in a series of similar procedures known as xenotransplants, the practice of transplanting organs from one species to another.
More than 103,000 people in the United States are in the waiting list for a transplantand the vast majority of them need a kidney. With organs from human donors in short supply, some researchers are exploring the use of pigs as a potential source.
“I’m very happy,” Looney said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “I feel blessed to have received this gift, a second chance at life.”
Earlier this year, surgeons performed pig kidney transplants on living people for the first time. In March, Richard Slayman, 62, made history when he received a kidney from a genetically modified pig at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was discharged from the hospital and initially doing well, but died almost two months after the transplant. in a statement issued by the hospitalHis medical team said there was no indication that his death was a result of his transplant. In November, Slayman’s surgeon said his death was caused by an “unexpected cardiac event” and there were no signs that his body had rejected the organ.
In the second attempt, in April of this year, Lisa Pisano, 54, received a kidney and thymus from a genetically modified pig after days before being implanted with a mechanical heart pump. The addition of the thymus, a small organ in the upper chest that is part of the immune system, was intended to help prevent rejection. That surgery was also performed at NYU Langone. But 47 days after the transplant, his doctors decided to remove the pig’s kidney after several episodes in which the heart pump could not pass enough blood through his new kidney. The kidney needs constant blood flow to produce urine and filter waste. Without it, Pisano’s kidney was failing. He died in July.
Two people previously received heart transplants from genetically modified pigs, the first in January 2022 and the second in September 2023, both at the University of Maryland. Those patients died less than two months after their surgeries and were too sick to leave the hospital.