Surgeons removed a genetically modified kidney pig from an Alabama woman after living an acute organs, according to Nyu Langone health officials on Friday.
Towana Looney, 53, lived with the kidney for 130 days, which is greater than anyone else has tolerated an organ of a genetically modified animal. He has continued dialysis, hospital officials said.
Dr. Robert Montgomery, a surgeon of Ms Looney and the director of the Nyu Langone Transplant Institute, said the so-called degeneration was not a regression for the field of host-the attempt to use organs by animals to replace what they failed.
“This is the biggest of these organs has been last,” he said in an interview, adding that Ms Looney had other medical conditions that could complicate her prognosis.
“All this takes time,” he said. “This game is going to be won with gradual improvements, singles and doubling. He’s not trying to move for the fences and get a run home.”
Further treatment of Ms Looney could have saved the instrument, but she and her medical team decided against her, Dr. Montgomery said.
“No. 1 is security – we had to be sure it would be okay,” he said.
Another patient, Concord’s Tim Andrews, NH, lives with a kidney of genetically modified pig since January 25th. He has been hospitalized twice for biopsies, doctors told Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Two other patients receiving similar kidneys in recent years have died, as well as two patients receiving hearts from genetically modified pigs.
Ms Looney, who returned to her home in Alabama after arrived in New York for treatment and was not available for comments, said in a statement that she was grateful for the opportunity to participate in the innovative process.
“For the first time since 2016, I liked the time with friends and family without designing dialysis treatments,” Ms Looney said in a statement provided by Nyu Langone.
“Although the result is not what someone wanted, I know that many have learned from my 130 days with a kidney kid – and that this can help and inspire many others on their journey to overcome kidney disease,” he said.
Hospital officials said Ms Looney’s kidney function fell after the instrument was rejected. The cause was investigated, Dr. Montgomery said.
But the answer followed a decrease in the immunosuppressive drugs he had taken to cure an irrelevant infection, he added.
The first sign of the problem was a blood test in Alabama that showed that Mrs Looney had elevated creatinine levels, a waste of waste removed from the blood through the kidneys. Increased signal levels may be a problem with kidney function.
Ms Looney was accepted in the hospital, but when creatinine levels continued to rise, she flew to New York, where doctors biopathic the kidney and found clear signs of rejection, Dr. Montgomery said.
The kidney was removed last Friday, hospital officials said.
“The decision was made by Mrs Looney and her doctors that the safest intervention would be to remove the kidney and return to dialysis instead of giving additional immunosuppression,” Dr. Montgomery said in a statement.
The United Therapeutics Corporation, the biotechnology company that produced the pig that provided Mrs Looney kidneys, thanked her for her bravery and said that the instrument seemed to work well until the rejection.
The company expects to launch a PIG-Kidney transplant clinical trial this year, starting with six patients and eventually increased in 50 patients.
Pig organs are considered a possible solution for the lack of organ donation, especially kidneys. More than 550,000 Americans have kidney failure and require dialysis and about 100,000 of them are on a waiting list to receive kidney.
But there is an acute need for human organs and fewer than 25,000 transplants were performed in 2023. Many patients die while waiting.
