Surgeons Successfully Transplant a Pig Kidney into a Person

The achievement bolsters hopes that nonhuman animals could be used to remedy the shortage of transplantable organs.

Written byChloe Tenn

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Update (January 20): In a first, University of Alabama at Birmingham surgeons have successfully implanted a pig kidney into a person—in this case, a brain dead man—with no signs of rejection, and the organ produced urine for several days, according to a university news release.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, the wait time for a kidney transplant spans several years due to a shortage of available organs. This scarcity could be rectified by organs from nonhuman animals, if such xenotransplant organs could prove viable. Now, research has taken a big step in that direction, experts say, as doctors at NYU Langone Transplant Institute claim they’ve performed the first-ever successful pig-to-human kidney transplant.

The surgery, which was into a person on life support with no detectable brain activity and occurred in September, attached a single kidney to a pair of blood vessels external to the patient’s ...

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Meet the Author

Chloe Tenn
Chloe Tenn is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where she studied neurobiology, English, and forensic science. Fascinated by the intersection of science and society, she has written for organizations such as NC Sea Grant and the Smithsonian. Chloe also works as a freelancer with AZoNetwork, where she ghostwrites content for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, food, energy, and environmental companies. She recently completed her MSc Science Communication from the University of Manchester, where she researched how online communication impacts disease stigma. You can check out more of her work here.
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