A third person has received a genetically engineered pig kidney transplant

A woman from Alabama He has become the third person to receive a kidney transplant from a genetically engineered pig, his doctors announced Tuesday.

Towana Looney, 53, is off kidney dialysis after undergoing the procedure Nov. 25 at NYU Langone Health. He was discharged from the hospital on December 6, and doctors say he is in good health. It is the latest in a series of similar procedures known as his surgery xenotransplantationthe practice of transplanting organs from one species to another.

There are more than 103,000 people in the United States waiting list for a transplantwith most requiring a kidney. Because human donor organs are in short supply, some researchers are considering using pigs as a potential source.

“I’m happy,” Looney said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “I am blessed to have received this gift, a second chance at life.”

Earlier this year, surgeons performed kidney transplants on living pigs for the first time. In March, 62-year-old Richard Slayman made history when he received a kidney from a genetically engineered pig at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was discharged from the hospital and was fine at first, but died almost two months after the transplant. in one Statement released by the hospitalhis medical team said there was no indication that his death was a result of the transplant. In November, Slayman’s surgeon pronounced him dead Caused by an “accidental cardiac event”, and there was no sign that her body had rejected the organ.

in the year second attempt, this AprilLisa Pisano, 54, received a kidney and thymus gland from a genetically engineered pig after being implanted with a mechanical heart pump days earlier. The addition of the thymus, a small organ in the upper chest that is part of the immune system, was to help prevent rejection. That surgery was also performed at NYU Langone. But 47 days after the transplant, his doctors selected for pig kidney removal after several episodes of the heart pump not being able to get enough blood through the new kidney. The kidney needs a steady flow of blood to make urine and filter out waste. Without it, Pisano’s kidney was failing. He died in July.

Two people previously received heart transplants from genetically engineered pigs. the first in January 2022 and a the second in September 2023both at the University of Maryland. These patients died less than two months after surgery and were too sick to leave the hospital.