Pig kidney recipient good after 30 days

Asia's first gene-edited pig kidney transplant patient has maintained stable kidney function for more than 30 days after surgery and has met the criteria for discharge, marking a milestone in China's xenotransplantation research and offering new hope for patients facing organ shortages, the hospital that performed the surgery said on Tuesday.

Doctors at Xijing Hospital of Air Force Military Medical University in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said the surgery was performed on March 6 by a multidisciplinary team led by Qin Weijun, director of the hospital's urology department, under the guidance of Dou Kefeng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The patient, a 69-year-old woman diagnosed with end-stage renal failure eight years ago, had limited treatment options — dialysis or a kidney transplant. However, due to her high sensitivity to human donor antigens, no compatible human kidney was available, leaving her reliant on dialysis.