Japanese researchers will attempt to transplant a pig kidney into a fetus

Transplanting a pig kidney, while the fetus develops properly, could save the lives of babies with Potter syndrome. In the coming months, Japanese researchers would like to tackle this disease, which completely deprives the fetus of kidneys.

Doctors talked a lot last year about the experimental transplant of a pig kidney into a brain-dead human in the United States. The kidney had functioned for two months and this success had raised a lot of hope for patients awaiting organ transplants. This week, Japanese researchers announced that they would attempt to transplant a pig kidney, but this time into a living human fetus.

This would be a world first in the field of these xenografts on which researchers are working all over the world. Xenografts consist of transplanting an organ of a biological species different from that of the recipient. This is one of the research responses to the serious shortage of organ donations.

Genetically modified pigs

There have been many experiments in the past with organ transplants from monkeys to humans. Right now, there are several trials trying to transplant pig kidneys or even hearts into short-term condemned patients. Often, these are pigs that have been genetically modified to minimize the risk of rejection of the organ by the human body.

Currently, doctors in Japan want to try this procedure on a fetus. They want to try to save babies who suffer from a serious illness, Potter syndrome. These fetuses do not have kidneys and therefore cannot produce urine. This causes an alteration of the amniotic fluid pocket in which they grow and, for example, blocks the growth of their lungs.

A transplant while waiting to be able to withstand dialysis

This syndrome is extremely rare but very serious. The life expectancy of babies born with Potter syndrome is only a few hours. So the idea of ​​Japanese researchers is to intervene very early, directly in the mother’s womb. They are trying to transplant, onto the baby’s fetus, the kidney of a fetal pig, a tiny organ two millimeters long. It is then planned to remove this pig kidney a few weeks after birth, when the baby will be strong enough to withstand dialysis.

These researchers from Jikei University School of Medicine and the National Center for Child Health have not yet given a timetable. The subject is very delicate on an ethical level and they want to obtain the green light from all the Japanese authorities before attempting the operation, which they hope to be able to do in the coming months.