‘Miracle’ pig organ retains man alive for 271 days in medical breakthrough
Tim Andrews, 67, had an organ transplant from a Yucatan miniature pig, which kept him off dialysis before he was able to receive a human kidney
Left Tim Andrews, 67(Image: Kate Flock/Massachusetts General Hospital/PA Wire)
A man has achieved a medical breakthrough after the kidney from a “miracle” miniature pig kept him alive for a staggering 271 days.
Tim Andrews, 67, was given the organ from a Yucatan miniature pig, which kept him off dialysis for nine months, before he was able to receive a human kidney.
Doctors have dubbed the procedure a major medical breakthrough as the pig’s organ worked for 271 days, the longest time on record.
American Tim had end-stage kidney disease caused by type 2 diabetes and received the genetically modified pig kidney in January last year, which he said gave him “hope” and “the chance to be free from the [dialysis] machine.”
Tim told a CNN documentary the transplant was a “miracle”. He added: “I was alive and I hadn’t been in a long time.”
Tim Andrews was kept alive for 271 days with a pig kidney (Image: Kate Flock/Massachusetts General Hospital/PA Wire)
The organ spared him months of dialysis at the hospital, before he was able to finally get a human kidney. The team at Mass General Brigham hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, stated their work shows pig organs can be used as a “bridge” until a human transplant becomes available.
Doctors and scientists are exploring xenotransplantation, using organs from other species, due to shortages of organs for transplants. Andrews was told it could take seven years to get on the top of the list. He stated: “I had a little bit of a shortage of time.. It becomes very depressing.”
In the US, around 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney while only 25,000 transplants occur each year. Doctors have called the organ shortage as “the greatest crisis we have right now in transplantation.”
Pigs are seen as the perfect animal due to roughly being the same size, then doctors have to ‘humanise’ their organs (Image: Kate Flock/Massachusetts General Hospital/PA Wire)
In the UK, organ transplant waiting lists are at a record high and more than 12,000 people have lost their lives waiting for a transplant in the past decade.
Researchers have developed Yucatan miniature pigs which have gone through 69 genomic modifications to “humanise” their organs.
Pigs are seen as the perfect animal due to their organs being roughly the right size. The pig organ eventually failed and was removed so Andrews needed dialysis for 82 days before a human donor was found in January. Doctors and scientists are continuing to work on xenotransplantation and hope it can soon become more of a permanent option.
Tim in an embrace with his wife leaving the hospital(Image: Kate Flock/Massachusetts General Hospital/PA Wire)
Lead author Dr Leonardo Riella stated: “The organ shortage is the greatest crisis we have right now in transplantation. We know that the best treatment option for patients with end-stage kidney disease who have developed renal failure is transplantation, but we simply don’t have enough human organs to transplant in a timely manner.
“Our vision is that xenotransplantation could help address this gap – initially as a bridge to get patients off dialysis while they wait for a human donor kidney, and potentially, as we established long-term safety and durability, as a destination therapy in its own right.”
