DistantNews
Support us
🇬🇭 Ghana /Health & Science

Pig kidney functions in US patient for record 271 days

From Daily Graphic · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • A genetically modified pig kidney functioned in Tim Andrews for 271 days, setting a reported record for a pig-organ transplant.
  • The organ eventually failed and was removed, after which Andrews received a human donor kidney following 82 days of dialysis.
  • Doctors say xenotransplantation could help address severe shortages of human kidneys for transplant.

A pig kidney worked inside Tim Andrews for 271 days, giving doctors their longest recorded run with a transplanted organ from an animal. For Andrews, the experiment offered something more personal: time away from the dialysis machine and hope that he could live normally again.

Andrews, who had end-stage kidney disease linked to type 2 diabetes, received the xenotransplant on January 25, 2025, at age 66. The kidney began working immediately, according to details published in the Lancet medical journal. It continued functioning until doctors removed it in October.

He then spent 82 days on dialysis before receiving a human donor kidney in January. That kidney has been working well. Before the pig transplant, Andrews had been told that reaching the top of the transplant list could take seven years. He said people on dialysis live five years on average, leaving him with what he described as a shortage of time.

The transplant gave him “hope” and “the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “Hope is the biggest thing, the chance to be free from the [dialysis] machine and live your life.”

Hope is the biggest thing, the chance to be free from the [dialysis] machine and live your life.

· Tim AndrewsAndrews described what the pig kidney transplant meant to him while he awaited a human donor organ.

Researchers are exploring xenotransplantation because the supply of human organs falls far short of demand. About 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney in the United States, while only 25,000 transplants take place each year. More than 7,000 people are on the kidney transplant list in the United Kingdom.

Pigs have organs of roughly the right size and a long history of being farmed, but an ordinary pig kidney would trigger an immediate immune attack in a human body. Researchers instead developed Yucatan miniature pigs with 69 genomic modifications. The changes remove features targeted by the immune system, add human DNA to help disguise the tissue, and disable viruses embedded in pig DNA.

Dr Leonardo Riella of Mass General Brigham said the shortage meant “we are in a crisis.” The research team believes xenotransplantation could provide an alternative for patients who do not have a living donor.

We are in a crisis.

· Dr Leonardo RiellaRiella referred to the shortage of organs available for transplant.
About this summary

Originally published by Daily Graphic in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog