Nervers transplant surgeons to the fourth patient

Surgeons in Boston successfully transplanted the kidney of a genetically modified pig into a 66-year-old man with kidney failure last month, announced on Friday the general hospital Massachusetts on Friday.

It was the fourth kidney transplant of pigs in the United States, and the first of three that will be performed in Mass General as part of a modern clinical trial sanctioned by the Food and Drug Agency. Two previous patients died shortly after the surgery, including one who was critical of the transplant.

Over 100,000 people in the country are on waiting lists for transplant organs, mainly kidneys, but there is a pointed deficiency of human organs. Many people will die while waiting.

To support relieve deficiency, several biotechnology companies edit pig genes so that their organs are not easily rejected by the human body.

The modern clinical trial that uses organs produced by the biotechnology company Egeneis is one of two genetically modified animal organs that received green airy from regulators at the beginning of this week. The second, sponsored by United Therapeutics Corporation, will start with six patients this year, but this number may eventually raise to 50.

The latest transplant recipient, Tim Andrews from Concord, NH, had surgery at the end of January and was well enough to be released a week later.

“When I left the regeneration room and went to the intensive care unit, I actually refueled between the table and my bed,” said Andrews on Thursday in an interview. “I’m very cheerful, it’s unbelievable.”

Mr. Andrews has been in the kidney dialysis for over two years, losing hourly treatments every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Most of the time they left him tired and nauseous, and he was unable to work or do a lot at home.

He had a heart attack shortly after the beginning of the dialysis, and in August last year, when he began to talk about the possibility of transplantation with mass general doctors, he used a wheelchair. They told him that he had to be in a better shape for surgery, so he began to do physical therapy and walk.

Like the Stepped Looney, a woman from Alabama, who received the pig’s kidney in Nyu Langone Health in November, Mr. Andrews said that after surgery he felt better than for years.

“It’s like a modern engine,” I suddenly poured an energy machine in me, “he said.

Even if the pig organs prove to be unthreatening and effective, it is not clear how much they would cost and whether they would be covered by insurance. Most patients experiencing kidney failure are unable to work and are covered by the Medicare’s government health plan.

The kidneys were received by Mr. Andrews from a pig, which has undergone 69 editions of the genes, including 59 to inactivating pig retrovirus to reduce the risk of infection in humans.

Two patients who had a swine kidney transplant last year died shortly after the procedures, including Lisa, Fresh Jersey was written, who underwent the surgery in Fresh York and whose kidneys was designed by United Therapeutics Corporation, and Richard Slayman of Massachusetts, who received Egeneza kidney in Mass General.

But Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, the main surgeon involved in the activities in Mass General, said that doctors were constantly learning.

The goal is to “make genetically edited pig organs, a profitable long -term solution for patients,” said Dr. Kawai in a statement. “Although we have a long way to realize, this transplant is an crucial next step.”