A team of American surgeons has transplanted a kidney from a genetically modified pig into a living patient, marking the first step toward a potential solution to the chronic shortage of donor organs, AFP reported Thursday from a US hospital.

The 62-year-old patient suffered from chronic kidney failure. He is “recovering well” from the surgery, which took place less than a week ago, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said in a statement.

Kidneys from genetically modified pigs have already been transplanted and worked into brain-dead humans.

Live patients have also previously received heart transplants from a genetically modified pig, but then died.

These genetic changes are made to reduce the risk of the body rejecting the organ.

What the first living patient who received a pig kidney says

The doctors “explained the pros and cons of the procedure to me in detail,” patient Richard Sleiman was quoted as saying in a press release.

“I saw this as a way not only to help myself, but also to give hope to the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”

More than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. Kidneys are the most needed organ.

The field of xenografts – the transplantation of animal organs into humans – has been developing rapidly in recent years.

The world’s first brain-dead pig kidney transplant was performed in September 2021 by surgeons at NYU Langone Hospital in New York.