Pig kidney transplant to human: Surgeons succeed for pig kidney transplant to human body

US surgeons say dem don successfully give pig kidney to one person for one transplant breakthrough and dem hope say dis go later solve donor organ shortages.

The Di recipient dey brain-dead, meaning dem don already dey on artificial life support wit no hope say e go recover.

Di kidney bin come from one pig wey dem don genetically modify to stop di organ wey di body dey recognise as "foreign" and e don reject.

Dem neva review di work wit dia peer or publish am but dem get plans for dis.

Experts say dis na di most advance experiment for di field so far.

Dem don already carry out dis kain test on non-human primates, but no be pipo, until now.

To use pigs for transplants no be new idea though. Humans don already dey widely use Pig heart valves.

And dia organs na good match for pipo wen it comes to size.

During di two-hour operation for di New York University Langone Health medical centre, di surgeons connect di donor pig kidney to di blood vessels of di brain-dead recipient to see if e go function normally once dem put am in or e go reject am.

Over di next two-and-a-half days dem go closely monitor di kidney, running plenti checks and tests.

Lead investigator Dr Robert Montgomery tell di BBC World Tonight programme: "We observe one kidney wey basically dey function like one human kidney transplant, wey appear to dey compatible in as much as e dey do all di tins wey normal human kidney go do.

"E function normally, and e no appear to dey undergo rejection."

One heart transplant recipient imself, Dr Montgomery say e get urgent need for finding more organs for pipo on waiting lists, although he acknowledge say im work dey controversial.

"Di traditional paradigm say pesin need die for someone else to live no go ever keep up.

"I certainly understand di concern and wetin I go say be say, currently about 40% of patients wey dey wait for transplant die before dem receive one.

"We use pigs as a source of food, we use pigs for medicinal uses - for valves, for medication. I think e no really dey different."

Im tok say na still early research and dem go need more studies , but im add: "E gives us, I think, new confidence say e go dey all right to move dis into di clinic."

Di family of di recipient, wey be wan do organ donor, give di permission for di surgery to go ahead.

US regulator di FDA don approve di use of di genetically modified pig organs for dis type of research use.