Pig Kidneys Transplanted Into Brain-Dead Man as Patients Face Organ Shortages

Doctors in Alabama said that they had successfully transplanted a pair of pig kidneys into the body of a brain-dead person, potentially paving the way for clinical trials of animal-to-human transplants for patients in desperate need of kidneys and other organs.

The first-of-its-kind surgery was performed in late September at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and described in a paper published Thursday in the American Journal of Transplantation. The genetically engineered kidneys weren’t immediately rejected by the recipient’s body and showed limited function for the duration of the multiday experiment, the doctors said.

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