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Pig kidney works 271 days in US patient
BBC News··4 Sept
A kidney transplanted from a pig worked inside Tim Andrews for 271 days, the longest on record, US doctors at Mass General Brigham say. Andrews, 66, had the xenotransplant on January 25, 2025. Around 100,000 people in the US wait for a kidney while only 25,000 transplants occur each year. The pig organ eventually failed.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Andrews was told it could take seven years to reach the top of the transplant list.
- People live only five years on average on dialysis, he said.
- More than 7,000 people in the UK are on the kidney transplant list.
What's Happening
- Researchers used Yucatan miniature pigs with 69 genomic modifications to humanise their organs.
- Andrews had end stage kidney disease from type 2 diabetes when he received the transplant.
- He said the pig transplant gave him hope and spared months of dialysis machine visits.
Xenotransplant Wait Lists
- The human body would destroy an unmodified pig kidney within minutes, researchers said.
- Pigs are seen as ideal because their organs are roughly the right size.
- The team says pig organs can serve as a bridge until a human transplant becomes available.
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