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To create a world without kidney diseases, the ASN Alliance for Kidney Health elevates care by educating and informing, driving breakthroughs and innovation, and advocating for policies that create transformative changes in kidney medicine throughout the world.

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Journal Club

Tuesday, December 16, 2025 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET

Hosted by the American Society of Nephrology

Featured article: Xenotransplantation of a Porcine Kidney for End-Stage Kidney Disease

NEJM: Published February 7, 2025 | N Engl J Med 2025;392:1933-1940 | DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa241274

Volume 392 Number 19 | Copyright © 2025

Image attribution: Kawai T et al. Xenotransplantation of a Porcine Kidney for End-Stage Kidney Disease. N Engl J Med 2025;392:1933-1940 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2412747

In this article:

Xenotransplantation offers a potential solution to the organ shortage crisis. A 62-year-old hemodialysis-dependent man with long-standing diabetes, advanced vasculopathy, and marked dialysis-access challenges received a gene-edited porcine kidney with 69 genomic edits, including deletion of three glycan antigens, inactivation of porcine endogenous retroviruses, and insertion of seven human transgenes. The xenograft functioned immediately. The patient's creatinine levels decreased promptly and progressively, and dialysis was no longer needed. After a T-cell–mediated rejection episode on day 8, intensified immunosuppression reversed rejection. Despite sustained kidney function, the patient died from unexpected, sudden cardiac causes on day 52; autopsy revealed severe coronary artery disease and ventricular scarring without evident xenograft rejection. (Funded by Massachusetts General Hospital and eGenesis.)

Registration is complimentary.

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    Speaker

                     Leonardo Riella    
                   Leonardo V. Riella, MD, PhD, FASN, FAST
    Harold and Ellen Danser Endowed Chair in Transplantation
    Medical Director of Kidney Transplantation
    Associate Director, Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance 
    Massachusetts General Hospital
    Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery
         Harvard Medical School
       
                                           
                            
       

      Moderators                   
                                       
                                       Amanddep Bajwa   
                           Amandeep Bajwa, PhD
                                Associate Professor    
                               The University of Tennessee 
                                     Health Science Center       
                                    Leslie Gewin    
                             Leslie Gewin, MD
                              Professor of Medicine, 
                              Division of Nephrology
                                  Washington, University in St. Louis
       

      Questions?

      If you have questions about this webinar, please contact Bonnie Freshly, Senior Project Specialist for Excellence in Patient Care, at bfreshly@asn-online.org.

      For more about ASN, and EPC, visit our website at epc.asn-online.org.