ブタの腎臓が初めて人間に移植に成功した：「変革の瞬間」
専門家は、ブタの腎臓が拒絶されることなく初めてヒトへの移植に成功したと発表した。
ロイター通信によると、9月25日、ニューヨーク大学の研究者たちは、遺伝子操作されたブタの腎臓が脳死した人間の体に付着している間に機能するのを観察した。
アウトレットによると、女性は腎機能障害の兆候があり、家族が手順に同意する前に生命維持装置から外される予定でした。CBS Newsによると、腎臓は上肢の血管に付着し、腹部の外側に3日間保持されていたため、研究者は腎臓を研究することができました。その間、それは保護シールドで覆われていました。
NYU LangoneHealthの手術チームを率いたRobertMontgomery博士は声明の中で、この手順は「臓器移植における変革の瞬間」であると述べました。
モンゴメリーはCBSイブニングニュースとのインタビューで、研究者は「来年か2年以内に」生きている人間に同様の移植を行うことができると考えていると述べた。
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"I think it will be something that, you know, eventually will be perfected to the point where it'll be an alternative to a human organ," the doctor told the outlet, adding, "I have hope."
Up until this point, a single molecule was one of the biggest roadblocks for experts researching the possible use of animal organs in humans, Montgomery said. As the doctor explained to CBS, animal organs like a pig kidney are typically rejected by the human body when antibodies in people attack the unfamiliar molecule.
This time, however, researchers used an organ from a pig genetically engineered without the molecule in question — and it worked.
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Montgomery said the kidney "turned a beautiful pink color" and urine "immediately" began passing from the kidney to the bladder following the xenotransplantation, leaving researchers in the room stunned.
"There was complete silence for a few minutes while we were sort of taking in what we were looking at, which was incredible," he told CBS Evening News. "It was a kidney that was immediately functioning."
The university said in a statement that the body was producing "normal and equivalent to what is seen from a human kidney transplant."
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Martine Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics — the parent company of Revivicor, which engineered the pig and its 100 cousins at a facility in Iowa — lauded the achievement in a statement addressing the breakthrough, per NPR.
"This is an important step forward in realizing the promise of xenotransplantation, which will save thousands of lives each year in the not-too-distant future," said Rothblatt.
