A 62-year-old man with severe kidney disease became the first person to receive a new kidney from a genetically modified pig, doctors from the Massachusetts Hospital in Boston announced, BTV reports.

The four-hour operation, which took place on March 16, "marks an important step in the quest to provide organs for patients," the hospital said in a statement.

The patient, Richard Sleiman, of Massachusetts, is recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon, the hospital said.

A pig kidney transplanted into a brain-dead person in the US has been functioning for more than a month

Sleiman received a human kidney transplant at the same hospital in 2018 after spending seven years on dialysis, but after five years he fell ill again and was put on dialysis.

His kidney has now been donated by a pig whose genetics have been altered - genes that could be harmful to a human recipient have been removed and certain human genes have been added to improve compatibility.

Medicines are prescribed to prevent the patient's immune system from rejecting the pig's organ.

The operation marks an advance in xenotransplantation -- the transplant of organs or tissues from one species to another, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of New York University's Transplant Institute.

"This field is moving closer to becoming an alternative source of organs for many hundreds of thousands suffering from kidney failure," he said.

In the US alone, over 100,000 people are waiting for an organ to be transplanted, with kidneys being the most sought after.

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