https://bio.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/p1/24/11/25/12666/

PolMed Tech in Kawasaki City,  a startup of Meiji University aiming to commercialize xenotransplantation, announced on November 25, 2024 that it had transplanted one kidney from a genetically modified pig for organ xenotransplantation into a cynomolgus monkey and confirmed urinary excretion. The monkey’s overall condition after surgery is said to be good. Since February 2024, the company has been producing and raising clones of genetically modified pigs developed by eGenesis, a US company, for xenotransplantation. As a joint research project between Meiji University, Kagoshima University, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and eGenesis, on November 24, 2024, the kidney of a cloned genetically modified donor pig was transplanted into a monkey for the first time. The donor pig has been modified in 10 types of genes to reduce the effects of immune rejection, and all genes of porcine endogenous retroviruses, which are a concern for infection of recipients during transplantation, have been inactivated. Specifically, three types of xenoantigen genes (GGTA1, CMAH, B4GALNT2) have been knocked out, and seven types of human genes (CD46, CD55, THBD, PROCR, CD47, TNFAIP3, HMOX1) involved in the control of complement activity, blood coagulation, macrophage activity, apoptosis, inflammation, etc. have been introduced.

The donor pig was a 2.5-month-old female, weighing 9 kg. The recipient monkey was a 7-year-5-month-old male, weighing 8 kg, one-fifth to one-tenth the size of an adult human (40-80 kg). In the future, when transplanting organs into humans, the plan is to adjust the size of the transplanted organ based on the growth period of the donor pig to suit the recipient.

Pol Med Tech is currently raising 13 donor pigs. They will be used for kidney transplantation tests on primates and long-term breeding tests in the future.