A genetically engineered pig kidney has been removed from a transplant patient after it started losing function, according to a statement on Friday from NYU Langone Health. The patient, 54-year-old Lisa Pisano of New Jersey is stable and has started dialysis, her doctors said. Pisano first received a mechanical heart pump, called an LVAD, on April 4 and then, on April 12, received a kidney and thymus gland from a gene-edited pig.
Her case is the first reported organ transplant in a person with a mechanical heart pump, NYU Langone said, and it was the second known transplant of a gene-edited pig kidney into a living recipient and the first transplanted along with the thymus. Top health headlines, all in one place The kidney had to be removed due “unique challenges in managing both her cardiovascular health and kidney function” 47 days after the transplant, NYU Langone Health said. There were multiple episodes where “the blood pressure she could generate from the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) was not adequate to provide optimal perfusion to the kidney, causing cumulative reduction in her kidney function,” said Dr.
Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, in the statement. “On balance, the kidney was no longer contributing enough to justify continuing the immunosuppression regimen.” There were no signs of rejection after a recent biopsy of the kidney, according to Montgomery, but there was “significant injury to the kidney from e.
