Watan-An American woman had a genetically modified pig kidney removed after more than four months, a record duration, because her body began rejecting the organ, as announced by the hospital that performed the surgery.
At the end of November, Tawana Loney, a woman in her 50s from Alabama, underwent a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, a very experimental medical procedure. It offers hope for addressing the chronic shortage of organs.
The removal of the kidney indicates that this goal is still a long way off, but it carries a positive aspect: the organ functioned for 130 days, or more than four months, which is a record. Previously, no patient had been able to continue living for more than two months after a similar operation.
Genetically Modified Pig Kidney Transplant Ends After Four Months
Loney said in a statement released by NYU Langone Hospital in New York: “For the first time since 2016, I was able to enjoy time with my friends and family anytime without having to plan around dialysis treatments.” She added that she was “very grateful… even though the result is not what everyone hoped for.”
Loney had donated one of her kidneys to her mother in 1999 and continued dialysis treatments for eight years after complications from pregnancy damaged her second kidney. After failing to find a suitable donor, her condition allowed her to receive a genetically modified kidney after her health deteriorated.
Despite the encouraging initial results, she suffered a “decline in kidney function due to her body’s rejection of the organ,” explained her surgeon, Robert Montgomery, in a statement.
He noted that they are investigating “the cause of this rejection after a long period of stability,” pointing out that the patient “reduced the use of immunosuppressive medication to treat an infection unrelated to the pig kidney.”
This treatment aims to suppress the immune system to prevent it from attacking the transplanted organ, causing rejection, but it weakens the body’s ability to respond to external threats.
Montgomery said that the decision to remove the organ was made by the patient and her doctors to preserve “the potential for a future transplant.”
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