Faced with the shortage of human donor organs, scientists around the world are looking for ways to transplant organs from animals into humans. Recently, US doctors had successfully used a pig heart in a human for the first time. It was announced yesterday that doctors in the US transplanted two pig kidneys into a brain-dead human recipient. The kidneys remained active for 77 hours before the experiment was terminated. According to the doctors, this means an additional step towards future use in patients who need donor kidneys.
The operation took place last September, and the results of the study have now been published in the American Journal of Transplantation. The scientists speak of a “remarkable achievement for mankind” and an advance in the field of xenotransplantation. This term stands for the transplantation of organs from one species to another, specifically from animals to humans.
Recent advances in genetic engineering make it possible for the donor animals – mostly pigs – to be modified in such a way that the human body does not reject the animal organ. Pigs are considered ideal donor animals because of their size, rapid growth and good breeding qualities.
Animal kidneys for humans
“For this purpose, Alabama in the USA has had its own ‘pig center’ right next to a hospital since 2015. In any case, research in the field of xenotransplantation is in full swing worldwide. We are well on the way there. Until then, however, this method was standard can be implemented, it will take many years, if not decades,” says Primar Daniel Cejka, Head of the Department of Nephrology and Transplantation Medicine at the Linz Elisabethinen Ordensklinikum. In the time before the corona pandemic, around 60 kidney transplants were carried out annually in the only transplant center in Upper Austria. “Last year we were only able to provide 48 patients with a donor kidney.” But it is not only the pandemic and the resulting worsening situation in the intensive care units that make life-saving transplants more difficult.
Far too few donor organs
“We have far too few donor organs in Upper Austria. 140 seriously ill people are currently on the waiting list for a new kidney,” says Daniel Cejka. You have to wait more than three and a half years for the kidney of a deceased organ donor. The donor organ, which is eagerly awaited by many, not only increases the quality of life, but also the life expectancy of those affected massively. “With dialysis you can live for many years on average, with transplantation this time is doubled and tripled. But it can also be 25 to 30 years,” says the doctor.
Source: Nachrichten
