US surgeons complete fifth gene-edited pig organ transplant

HOUSTON - US surgeons have completed the fifth gene-edited pig organ transplant for an Alabama woman who is now free from dialysis and in better health, New York University (NYU) Langone Health said Tuesday.

The surgery marks the latest promising breakthrough in an emerging surgical practice posited as the solution to the organ supply crisis, NYU Langone Health said in a press release.

Towana Looney, 53, donated a kidney to her mother in 1999 but developed kidney failure several years later after a complication during pregnancy caused damaging high blood pressure. She underwent the seven-hour procedure on Nov 25 after eight years of dialysis.

"It's a blessing," said Looney.

"I feel like I've been given another chance at life. I cannot wait to be able to travel again and spend more quality time with my family and grandchildren."

Doctors expect her to return home in three months. If the pig kidney fails, she can begin dialysis again.

Looney's procedure marks the third time that a kidney from a gene-edited pig has been transplanted into a living human, according to the press release.

She is the first to receive a kidney from a pig with 10 gene edits and is currently the only person in the world living with a pig organ, it said.

Data from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control show that more than one in seven adults, about 35.5 million people, have chronic kidney disease in the United States.

Of those, the National Institutes of Health estimates nearly 808,000 have end-stage kidney disease, but only about 27,000 received kidney transplants in 2023. - XINHUA