According to Dr. Qin Weijun, director of the urology department at Xijing Hospital of the Air Force Medical University, as of April 7th, the transplanted kidney has been functioning well in the recipient's body, producing urine normally for the past 13 days.
On March 25th, Dr. Qin Weijun's team performed a groundbreaking surgery involving the transplantation of a multi-gene edited pig kidney into a brain-dead human recipient. This marked the first instance of such a procedure in China.
Led by Dr. Dou Kefeng, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at Xijing Hospital, along with Dr. Tao Kaishan, director of the hepatobiliary surgery department, a total of 21 departments collaborated closely to facilitate the operation. No hyperacute rejection was observed during the surgery. Throughout the process, the research team meticulously monitored the functioning status, various indicators, and processes of the xenotransplanted kidney in the human body, further exploring mechanisms related to immune rejection, coagulation disorders, pathogen infections, and more.
It is reported that the donor pig for this surgery was provided by Chengdu Zhongke Aoge Biotechnology Co., Ltd., with three genes associated with hyperacute rejection knocked out and one human complement regulatory protein gene and one human coagulation regulatory protein gene inserted. The recipient was a patient who had been evaluated three times by the hospital and confirmed to be brain dead. The patient's family consented to participate in this xenotransplantation research voluntarily.
Illustration of Heterologous Renal Transplant Surgery.
Directors of Urology, Qin Weijun and Yang Xiaojian, along with Associate Professor Ma Shuaijun, performed a xenotransplantation surgery.
The kidney transplant was successful, with good renal function. All images provided by the Publicity Department of Xijing Hospital.
Qin Weijun mentioned that the primary genetic technology for addressing rejection issues currently is CRISPR/Cas9. The team aims to reduce the occurrence of xenotransplant rejection reactions through knockout/insertion strategies.
