pig kidney transplant xenotransplant.

FILE - Surgeons at NYU Langone Health prepare to transplant a pig's kidney into a brain-dead man in New York on July 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum, File)

First clinical trial of pig kidney transplants gets underway

The first clinical trial is getting underway to see if transplanting pig kidneys into people might really save lives. United Therapeutics, a producer of gene-edited pig kidneys, announced Monday that the study’s initial transplant was performed successfully at NYU Langone Health. It’s the latest step in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. A second U.S. company, eGenesis, is preparing to begin a similar trial in the coming months. A handful of experiments led up to these more rigorous studies. The longest-lasting known so far was 271 days, when a New Hampshire man resumed dialysis as his declining pig kidney was removed.

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