Harvard University Massachusetts General Hospital announced Thursday that it has successfully performed the world's first successful transplant of a gene-edited pig kidney into a 62-year-old man with end-stage renal disease.
Surgeons at Mass General Transplant Center performed the four-hour surgery on March 16th. This surgery marks a major milestone in the quest to provide patients with more readily available organs.
“This successful transplant is the culmination of decades of hard work by thousands of scientists and physicians,” said Tatsuo Kawai, director of the Legorreta Clinical Transplant Tolerance Center and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. “Our hope is that this transplant approach will provide a lifeline to the millions of patients around the world suffering from kidney failure.”
Pig kidneys were provided by eGenesis, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company had used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes to improve compatibility with humans. Additionally, the scientists inactivated the endogenous porcine retrovirus in the donor pig to eliminate the risk of infection to humans.
The patient, Richard “Rick” Suleiman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is recovering at MGH and is expected to be discharged soon, hospital officials said.
“As the global medical community celebrates this monumental achievement, Mr. Suleiman will become a beacon of hope for countless people suffering from end-stage renal disease and break new ground in organ transplantation,” said Jolene, MGH Transplant Director. C. Madsen said. Paul S. Russell/Warner Lambert Professor of Surgery at the Center and HMS.
“I thought it was a way to not only help me, but also give hope to the thousands of people who need transplants to survive.”
Richard “Rick” Suleiman, kidney transplant recipient
Mr. Suleiman has suffered from type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure for many years. After undergoing dialysis seven years ago, he received a kidney transplant from a deceased human donor in December 2018. The transplanted kidney showed signs of failure after about five years, and Suleiman restarted dialysis in May 2023. Since restarting dialysis, he encountered recurrent dialysis vasculopathy. Accessing the complication requires trips to the hospital every two weeks for clot removal and surgical correction, which seriously impacts his quality of life and is also a common problem for dialysis patients.
“I have been a patient at Mass Comprehensive Transplant Center for 11 years and have the utmost confidence in the doctors, nurses, and clinical staff who cared for me,” Suleiman said in a statement. “When my transplanted kidney starts functioning in 2023, I will once again trust the care team at MGH to help me achieve my goal of not only improving my quality of life, but extending my quality of life.” My nephrologist, Dr. Winfred Williams, and the team at the transplant center suggested a pig kidney transplant, carefully explaining the pros and cons of this procedure. We saw this as not only a way to do it, but a way to give hope to the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”
“At MGH alone, there are more than 1,400 patients on the kidney transplant waiting list. Unfortunately, due to long wait times for dialysis, some of these patients die or become too sick to receive a transplant. “I am a strong believer that xenotransplantation is a promising solution to the organ shortage crisis,” said Harold Danzer and Ellen Dancer Associate Professor of Surgery, director of kidney transplant medicine at HMS. Leonardo V. Riera said.
The world's first successful human organ transplant (kidney) was performed at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1954, and the first penis transplant in Japan was performed at MGH in 2016. According to the Organ Sharing Network, more than 100,000 people are waiting for a transplant in the United States. Seventeen people die every day waiting for organs for transplant. Kidneys are the most common organ required for transplantation, and end-stage kidney disease rates in the United States are estimated to increase by 29 to 68 percent by 2030, according to a paper published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
“The continued success of this groundbreaking kidney transplant represents a true milestone in the field of transplantation. It also represents a significant increase in the number of patients affected by minority populations due to extreme donor organ shortages and other system-based barriers. “This represents a potential breakthrough in solving one of our field's most difficult problems: unequal access to kidney transplant opportunities.” Fred said. Williams, HMS Associate Professor of Medicine. “This health disparity has been the subject of many national policy initiatives for more than 30 years, with limited success. It could go a long way in achieving equity and providing the best solution to kidney failure – properly functioning kidneys – for all patients who need it.”
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