Medicine
In recent years, the transplantation of pig hearts as replacement organs for humans has made headlines. A pig kidney has now been transplanted for the first time.
According to the hospital, the operation took four hours, and the patient is recovering well and is likely to leave the hospital soon. Photo: Michelle Rose/Massachusetts General Hospital/DPA
Source: German News Agency (DPA).
This report was not edited by the BZ editorial team.
Boston (dpa) – Doctors announced that for the first time in the world, a pig kidney has been successfully used as a replacement organ in the human body. Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, said the man, who suffers from life-threatening kidney disease, underwent a genetically modified organ transplant on Saturday. The operation took four hours, and the patient is recovering well and will likely leave the hospital soon.
A transplant could bring hope to tens of thousands of people who depend on donor organs. So-called organ transplantation has been studied since the 1980s. Pigs are particularly suitable as donors because their metabolism is similar to that of humans.
Scientists have been trying for some time to make pig organs usable in humans. For this to be possible, the genetic makeup of the donor animals must be changed, among other things. Without genetic adaptation, transmission to humans would result in an immediate and severe rejection reaction.
Recently, pig hearts were transplanted as replacement organs into two seriously ill patients at University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. However, both patients died several weeks after surgery. Similar interventions are also planned in Germany in the foreseeable future.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240322-99-424106/2
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