Doctors have set a new record by successfully testing pig kidney transplant in human body for the first time. The kidneys did the job of filtering out the waste material, including urine production, and did not show any side effects. With this achievement, American scientists (surgeons) have taken a giant leap in the direction of using animal organs (xenotransplant) in the human body.
This has given hope to overcome the shortage of organs necessary to save human life in future. The kidney transplant trial was conducted at LYU Langone Health in New York. During this, the kidney was attached from outside by placing the body of a mentally dead woman on a ventilator. Testing for two days found that the kidney was working well. However, the United States of America Food and Drugs Administration has asked for more reports before starting the transplant of pig organs in humans.
Wonders of Genetic Engineering:
Genetic engineering is a major contributor to this success. The pig whose kidney was transplanted had already been edited in its genes. Due to this kidney has not had any side effect on the human body. Pig cells contain a special type of sugar (alpha-gal), which is not found in humans. Therefore, before this, whenever a pig kidney was tried to be transplanted into a human, an adverse reaction was seen immediately. But this time through gene editing, that sugar had already been removed from the pig's cells.
Old attempt to use animal organs:
Attempts to use animal organs in the human body date back more than 300 years. The first attempts were made to use animal blood for transfusion in the 17th century. So far, attempts have been made to use parts of apes from monkeys to chimpanzees in humans. The first success of animal organ transplantation in humans came in 1984, when a baboon (monkey) heart was implanted in an American newborn baby named 'Baby Fay'. However, he died within a month.
Pig valve-skin already used:
Pig heart valves have been used successfully for decades in humans. Apart from this, the blood-thinning drug heparin is also prepared from pig intestine. Similarly, its leather is also used in case of burns. Chinese physicians use pig's cornea to improve eyesight.
Human organs are needed for five lakh Indians annually:
Martin Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics, said: "This breakthrough has raised hopes of indiscriminately transplanting pig kidneys into humans in the coming days." This will save millions of lives globally. Millions of people in the world need human organs annually, but 35 percent of these patients die while waiting for organs. In India alone, five lakh people are in need of a human organ every year, of which 1.5 to two lakh are kidney patients. But only 8,000 people get kidney. Similarly, 1.07 lakh people in America need organ transplant, out of which 90 thousand patients need kidney. But due to the long wait in America, 12 people are dying every day.
