Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

nature.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 293 posts

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#91

Post by pazimzadeh »

derektank wrote: post #81
pazimzadeh wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really depends on the organ. Kidneys stand out as the most successful organs for transplantation, even in allotransplantation (between humans) so it makes sense that they are working well in xeno as well. Kidneys are not as vascularized as some other organs (heart or lung) which probably helps a lot. Heart and lung xenotransplantation are still a ways off and a lot of basic research is still needed to make them wo…

There have already been a couple of attempted heart xenotransplants? Lawrence Faucette being the most recent patient that I've read about.

yep, but they didn't last as long. six weeks max I think?

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#92

Post by kiba »

sadeshmukh wrote: post #76
andrewmutz wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s working in Japan

I wouldn't believe most in the US would live in Japanese style housing at all.

Most homes in Japan aren't built in the traditional Japanese style at all IIRC.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#94

Post by j_timberlake »

Transplanted kidneys get rejected by the recipient's immune system eventually, you'd really need to clone the kidney from the individual's DNA to solve the rejection problem. There's also been some success with integrating the DNA from the kidney donor (a human) into the recipient's bone marrow to stop the rejection process, but I hear it can be a brutal procedure in which the original bone marrow must be destroyed using chemotherapy or radiation.

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/video-eliminat...

https://www.immunofree.com/how-it-works/

If I were a patient, I'd probably want a pig kidney now and really hope it lasts until something like kidney cloning is a thing.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#96

Post by bawolff »

SoftTalker wrote: post #5
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

Meanwhile we can’t figure out how to provide a basic level of housing and healthcare to everyone.

In star trek they only figured that out in 2024, so we are only a year late.

And honestly, the way us politics are headed, a "bell riots" type event doesn't even seem that implausible. (Learning from it on the other hand does seem implausible)

[For those not into star trek lore, the way star trek became a utopia was first the government put poor people in internment camps, eventually triggering violent riots in 2024, which eventually lead to people learning from their mistakes and a utopia society. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bell_Riots ]

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#98

Post by lurking_swe »

SoftTalker wrote: post #5
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

Meanwhile we can’t figure out how to provide a basic level of housing and healthcare to everyone.

oh we can “figure it out” trivially. There’s no technology or actual resources preventing that from happening.

But the status quo benefits many parties… alas, “people” problems are harder than technical ones. Most humans can be remarkably greedy, and also stupid in large groups.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#99

Post by magicalhippo »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #66
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…

It really depends on the organ. Kidneys stand out as the most successful organs for transplantation, even in allotransplantation (between humans) so it makes sense that they are working well in xeno as well. Kidneys are not as vascularized as some other organs (heart or lung) which probably helps a lot. Heart and lung xenotransplantation are still a ways off and a lot of basic research is still needed to make them wo…

A family member needed a kidney transplant in the early 60s. This was in the UK where the first successful transplant was in 1959, so just a few years earlier.

Thanks to a kid on a motorcycle she got a kidney just in the nick of time.

She was in her early 20s and was told she could expect a few years. Because of that she never had kids.

Her donated kidney served her well and she lived a quite normal life. She passed when it finally gave up when she was close to 70.

So those "few years" turned into almost 50.

Interestingly she mentioned she was told to take some strong medicine after the transplant. She got this feeling it wasn't good for her and stopped taking them soon after, without telling the docs of course.

She always wondered if that was the reason it held out so long.

Re: Man still alive six months after pig kidney transplant

#100

Post by majormajor »

ianbutler wrote: post #56
stackbutterflow wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the former billionaires won't have the ability to influence society to pass laws that favours them. We'll finally be able to build a society for everyone.

> We'll finally be able to build a society for everyone. I assure you this isn't the only blocker and its naive to think that [other_set_of_humans] will not try to consolidate power for themselves after you remove the current set. Most people are not in it for their fellow man and whoever sold you this idea that billionaires are the only impediment to, or even blocking now, a better society -- lied to you. By all mea…

Everyone in the US misses the 50s, marginal tax rates were crazy high. "Oh, but people had lots of deductions and not many people actually paid the top rates" - yeah, that's exactly the point, it encouraged money to be spread around more. And a whole lot of people prospered, while government revenue was less lopsidedly concentrated too.

Get people away from paycheck-to-paycheck debt loads and you've improved a lot of lives regardless of if those people are egalitarians who will then vote for utopian policies. We know that allowing more and more consolidation ain't the move.

Post reply on HN