The world's first patient to undergo a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has been released from hospital. The patient was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday after two weeks of successful pig kidney transplant at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Doctors termed this event as groundbreaking.

Although doctors tried for decades, pig kidneys did not work in the human body. Instead, the human body's immune system immediately destroys the tissues of other animals. Recently, doctors have made several attempts to transplant pig organs into the human body. Pigs are genetically modified before organs are harvested; So that their organs are like human organs.

So far, scientists have called the success of this method of genetically modifying a pig kidney into a human body a "historic milestone" in the field of transplantation. On Wednesday, the MGH authorities shared the information about this unprecedented success through a press release. MGH is the largest educational institution of Harvard Medical School located in Boston, USA.

According to the release, Richard "Rick" Slayman, of Weymouth, Massachusetts, was battling end-stage kidney disease. He needed a kidney transplant. On March 16, a group of doctors performed a four-hour operation on the body of the 62-year-old man and transplanted the kidney. Sleiman's kidneys are now working well and he is no longer on dialysis, they said.

In a statement, Sleiman said being able to leave the hospital and go home was "one of the happiest moments" of his life.

"I look forward to spending time with family, friends and loved ones again, freed from the burden of dialysis that has affected my quality of life for so many years."

Earlier, Sleiman underwent a kidney transplant at a US hospital in 2018. But last year, his kidney showed signs of failure. Later he started taking dialysis. Due to complications in the body due to dialysis, doctors advised him to undergo a pig kidney transplant.

Doctors in Boston said they genetically modified a kidney from a pig and transplanted it into Sleiman's body. Massachusetts General Hospital says it is the first in the world to transplant a pig kidney into a living human body.

"I don't see it as just a way to help myself," Sleiman said. Rather, it is a way to give hope to thousands of people; Those who need a kidney transplant to survive.''

Sleiman's new pig kidney was genetically modified by the Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company Egenesis. They said they removed the pig's harmful genes from the kidney and inserted some human genes that could adapt to the human body, making it suitable for transplant.

Breakthrough success, world's first human pig kidney transplant
Research on pig organs has been ongoing for a long time to address the shortage of human organ transplants. But the pig's body cells contain a special type of sugar; Which is recognized as foreign by the human body and is immediately rejected by the human body. That's why doctors breed pigs by gene-editing them for this kidney transplant experiment. The sugar is removed from the pig's body by gene editing. The pig's genes are edited so that the body's immune system is not attacked.

Hospital authorities say that in this process they are inspired by the history behind the world's first successful kidney transplant in 1954. Apart from this, they also conducted research with Egenesis on xenotransplantation for the last five years.

The US Food and Drug Administration has given the green light for successful kidney transplants in this process. The team of doctors behind the kidney transplant termed the event as a "historic step". It could potentially solve the world's organ shortage, they say. especially ethnic minority communities; Those with the most severe organ shortage.

"These technological advances could ultimately lead to an abundant supply of organs that can go a long way toward achieving health equity and optimal solutions for patients with kidney failure," said Winfred Williams, Sleiman's physician at MGH Hospital.

Pig kidney is working in human body
More than 100,000 Americans currently need these life-saving organ transplants, according to the US nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing. But last year the number of dead and living donors in the country was less than 23,500. It is estimated that 17 patients die every day in the United States due to lack of organs. And kidneys are in the highest demand for organ transplants.

This is the first time a pig kidney has been transplanted into a human body. However, other pig organs have been transplanted into human bodies in the past. A few years ago a pig kidney was transplanted into a "brain-dead or clinically dead" human body. Pig hearts were also transplanted into two men. Although within a few months of heart transplant