As reported by Massachusetts General Hospital, where the operation was performed in March, there is no indication that death occurred as a result of the transplant. The man was 62 years old.
Richard Slaymanthe first person transplanted with a genetically modified pig kidney, has died at the age of 62, two months after undergoing the xenotransplantation. The patient’s family, as well as the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he underwent surgery, reported the death last Saturday, although the medical center has stated that there is no indication that the death occurred as a result of the kidney transplant.
After the operation, the medical team estimated that the xenotransplant could work for two years. Slayman, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, was the first living person to undergo the procedure in hopes of finding a new avenue for patients like him, affected by a renal disease in terminal stage.
The operation took place on March 16 and lasted four hours, in what was considered “a first-class milestone” in the search for quickly available organs for patients.
He pig kidney was “edited with 69 genomes” through the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology, which consists of eliminating possibly harmful porcine genes and subsequently adding human genes to make it compatible with a human body; In addition, the scientists deactivated endogenous pig retroviruses to minimize possible infections.
The donor pig was provided by a Massachusetts company called eGenesis, which specializes precisely in transplants and the modification of animal organisms to make them compatible with humans, in a process known as “xenotransplantation” according to its web portal.
Patient Slayman, suffering from type 2 diabetes and hypertension for years, was already the recipient of a human kidney in December 2018, but five years later the transplanted kidney gave him problems and he had to return to dialysis, which caused vascular problems which forced him to undergo hospital check-ups every two weeks, with a great impact on his personal life.
Source: Eitb
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.