Scientists Show that Monkeys Can Live Up to 2 Years with Genetically Modified Pig Kidneys
A crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis), the species of monkey used in the team’s experiments.
Research out this week appears to show the potential longevity of transplanted organs from genetically engineered pigs. Scientists gave monkeys kidneys from these animals, finding that some were able to live for one to two years. Many of the genetic changes evaluated in this study could make pig-to-human transplants a more viable treatment to test out in clinical trials, the team says.
Animal-to-human transplantation, or xenotransplantation, has become a promising avenue for addressing the perpetual shortage of donated organs. By editing the genes of pigs to make them more compatible with human biology, the hope is that their organs can be safely tolerated by the recipient’s immune system.
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The monkeys given organs from the least-edited pigs survived less than two months on average. Of the rest, nine monkeys survived for longer than two months, five survived for over a year, and one monkey made it to just over two years (as of the study’s publication, three monkeys are reportedly still alive, with the longest living over 670 days). Other tests found that the edited organs in these monkeys could perform as well as native kidneys, at least for a time.
The findings are only a proof-of-concept for the technology. There are still many questions about the best way to make xenotransplantation safe and effective in humans. Many researchers have been experimenting with far fewer genetic edits than the ones seen here, for instance. But the team says their results should bring “us closer to clinical testing of porcine renal grafts for human transplantation.”
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