After living with a pig kidney for a record 130 days, an Alabama woman had the organ removed after her body began rejecting it. Doctors put her back on dialysis, telling the Associated Press (AP) it was a disappointment in the ongoing quest for animal-to-human transplants.
Towana Looney has returned home to Gadsden, Ala., following her April 4 surgery at NYU Langone Health and is recovering well. She thanked her doctors for “the opportunity to be part of this incredible research.”
“Though the outcome is not what anyone wanted, I know a lot was learned from my 130 days with a pig kidney – and that this can help and inspire many others in their journey to overcoming kidney disease,” Looney told AP.
On average, 17 people in the U.S. die every day while waiting for a transplant and more than 100,000 are on a waiting list. After decades of experimenting with alternatives, many doctors now see potential in replacing failing human organs with genetically modified pig organs, CNN reports.
Prior to Looney’s transplant, only four other Americans had received experimental xenotransplants of gene-edited pig organs – two hearts and two kidneys that lasted no longer than two months. Those recipients, who were severely ill before the surgery, died, the article said.
Researchers are now trying these transplants in healthier patients like Looney. She had been on dialysis since 2016 and didn’t qualify for a regular transplant because her body was abnormally primed to reject a human kidney, AP reports.
Doctors are still trying to figure out exactly what caused the rejection, but have recognized factors that may have contributed to it:
- Shortly before her body began rejecting the kidney, Looney suffered an infection related to her prior time on dialysis and her immune-suppressing anti-rejection drugs were slightly lowered, AP reports.
- While this was happening, her immune system was reactivating after the transplant.
Montgomery said Looney’s experience offers valuable lessons for the upcoming clinical trial.
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