The Temporary
-
A brand new paper highlights the success story of Tim Andrews, who lived for a report 271 days with out dialysis after receiving a pig kidney transplant.
-
Andrews, one among greater than 100,000 folks on the U.S. organ donor ready listing, ultimately acquired a human kidney.
-
Researchers say his case exhibits how xenotransplantation may also help “bridge the hole between end-stage kidney failure and a human transplant, permitting a affected person to forgo dialysis within the meantime.”
A person who lived with a pig kidney for 271 days earlier than later receiving a human organ exhibits how the follow of xenotransplantation might assist bridge the hole for sufferers on the donor listing, a brand new paper discovered.
The Mass Common Brigham paper was revealed Sept. 3 in The Lancet.
Tim Andrews’ pig kidney transplant
The backstory
In accordance with a information launch from Mass General Brigham, 66-year-old Tim Andrews acquired a genetically modified pig kidney transplant in January 2025. The pig organ transplant – often called xenotransplantation – allowed Andrews to skip dialysis for 271 days earlier than he had the organ eliminated Oct. 23 as a result of its perform was declining.
Andrews resumed dialysis earlier than receiving a human kidney transplant in January 2026.
What they’re saying
Researchers say Andrews’ case is a prime example of how xenotransplantation might “bridge the hole between end-stage kidney failure and a human transplant, permitting a affected person to forgo dialysis within the meantime.”
RELATED: Groundbreaking pancreatic cancer drug approved by FDA: What we know
“The organ scarcity is the best disaster now we have proper now in transplantation,” mentioned lead writer Dr. Leonardo Riella, of the Middle for Transplantation Sciences and the Division of Nephrology at Mass Common Brigham. “We all know that the very best therapy choice for sufferers with end-stage kidney illness who’ve developed renal failure is transplantation, however we merely haven’t got sufficient human organs to transplant in a well timed method. Our imaginative and prescient is that xenotransplantation might assist deal with this hole—initially as a bridge to get sufferers off dialysis whereas they look ahead to a human donor kidney, and doubtlessly, as we set up long-term security and sturdiness, as a vacation spot remedy in its personal proper.”
The historical past of xenotransplantation
Dig deeper
Andrews’ expertise illustrates classes researchers have realized with every experiment. The primary makes an attempt utilizing pig organs gene-edited to be extra humanlike – two hearts and two kidneys – have been short-lived.
The first one in 2024, also at Massachusetts General Hospital, resulted within the affected person surviving 52 days earlier than loss of life from cardiac causes unrelated to the transplant.
RELATED: Alabama woman has pig kidney removed after a record 130 days
Then researchers started contemplating sufferers not practically as sick as prior recipients for these experiments — and an Alabama woman’s pig kidney lasted 130 days earlier than it needed to be eliminated final spring, the report Andrews surpassed.
RELATED: Pig kidney transplanted into man in surgical first
By the numbers
Greater than 100,000 folks, most needing kidneys, are on the U.S. transplant listing, and 1000’s die ready.
“The sufferers are the true pioneers right here,” Riella mentioned. “By stepping ahead and being prepared to take part in these early-stage research, they’re advancing the science. With out their belief and braveness, we might not have the ability to do what we do.”
The Supply
This report consists of data from Mass Common Brigham hospital and The Related Press.
