内容摘要：single gene knockout, now is bred instead of cloned. If xenotransplantation eventually works, other pigs with the desired gene combinations would be, too.

single gene knockout, now is bred instead of cloned. If xenotransplantation eventually works, other pigs with the desired gene combinations would be, too.

NEW YORK (AP) — Doctors have transplanted a pig kidney into a New Jersey woman who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart.Lisa Pisano’s combination of heart and kidney failure left her too sick to qualify for a traditional transplant, and out of options. Then doctors at NYU Langone Health devised a novel one-two punch: Implant a mechanical pump to keep her heart beating and days later transplant a kidney from a genetically modified pig.

Pisano is recovering well, the NYU team announced Wednesday. She’s only the second patient ever to receive a pig kidney -- following a landmark transplant– and the latest in a string of attempts to make animal-to-human transplantation a reality.This week, the 54-year-old grasped a walker and took her first few steps.

“I was at the end of my rope,” Pisano told The Associated Press. “I just took a chance. And you know, worst case scenario, if it didn’t work for me, it might have worked for someone else and it could have helped the next person.”Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of NYU Langone Transplant Institute, recounted cheers in the operating room as the organ immediately started making urine.

Lisa Pisano looks at photos of her dog after her surgeries at NYU Langone Health in New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. Doctors transplanted a pig kidney into Pisano, who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also included a fix for her failing heart. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)

Lisa Pisano looks at photos of her dog after her surgeries at NYU Langone Health in New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. Doctors transplanted a pig kidney into Pisano, who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also included a fix for her failing heart. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, isn’t a food company — it researches xenotransplantation. Nor has it yet found anyone in the agriculture business interested in selling GalSafe pork.

Still, “this is a research pig that FDA approved so let’s get it to the patients,” is how Ayares describes beginning the shipments a few years ago.Revivicor’s GalSafe herd is housed in Iowa and to keep its numbers in check, some meat is periodically processed in a slaughterhouse certified by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Revivicor then mails frozen shipments to alpha-gal syndrome patients who’ve filled out applications for the pork.

Thank-you letters relating the joy of eating bacon again line a bulletin board near the freezer in Revivicor’s corporate office.Separately, pigs with various gene modifications for xenotransplant research live on a Revivicor farm in Virginia, including a GalSafe pig that was the source for a