Two Pig Kidney Recipients Get Human Donor Organs — SkimNews
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- eGenesis announced Thursday evening that two recipients of its genetically engineered pig kidneys successfully received organs from human donors after their xenografts were removed
- Both patients went back on dialysis for months after their pig kidneys were removed before a human organ became available, with the pig kidneys keeping them off dialysis for nearly a year
- eGenesis scientists had hypothesized based on primate studies that xenograft recipients would not produce antibodies complicating a later human-to-human transplant, a prediction now confirmed in these two cases
- eGenesis is one of a handful of biotech companies racing to develop xenografts (interspecies transplants)
- The xenograft project is motivated by the shortage of human organs, with many patients dying while waiting for a transplant
Why it matters: The milestone addresses the central medical gamble of xenotransplantation — whether a pig kidney bridge would immunologically disqualify a patient from a future human organ. With two recipients now confirmed to have made that transition, eGenesis has evidence that its pig kidneys can serve as a functional bridge to human transplantation, directly relevant to the organ shortage that kills waiting patients.
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