CNN ÔÇö

New advancements in transplanting pig kidneys to humans, detailed by two separate research teams on Wednesday, mark key steps forward in the evolving field of xenotransplantation, the use of non-human tissues or organs to treat medical conditions in humans.

Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine found that transplanted kidneys not only produced urine, they provided the ÔÇ£life-sustaining kidney functionÔÇØ of filtering waste, according to a research letter published in JAMA Surgery.

And in a news conference about an ongoing study, a team from New York University Langone Health highlighted the longer-term success of a transplant.

Both research teams used genetically modified pig kidneys that were transplanted into recipients experiencing brain death in what is considered pre-clinical human research.

Healthy kidneys filter a waste product called creatinine out of the blood. A measure of serum creatinine levels can help determine how well this process is working.

Other studies have demonstrated that this can occur when pig kidneys are transplanted in non-human primates. But creatinine comes from a chemical that supplies energy to muscles, and the amount can vary by muscle mass ÔÇô and average adult humans are much bigger than other primates.

ÔÇ£Being able to show that these pig kidneys not only made urine but were also able to clear creatinine ÔÇô and do that for an adult human ÔÇô is absolutely critical and important before moving into a living person,ÔÇØ said Dr. Jayme Locke, director of UABÔÇÖs Comprehensive Transplant Institute and lead author of the new research.

ÔÇ£The goal of transplantation is not to just make urine. The kidneys have to be able to function and clear toxic substances from the body, and we were able to show that.ÔÇØ

The UAB study was conducted in a 52-year-old man who lived with hypertension and stage 2 chronic kidney disease. He was not named at the request of his family.

Before the transplant, serum creatinine levels were well above normal. But they were cut in half within 24 hours of the transplant and normalized by 48 hours, maintaining a normal range through the remainder of the study ÔÇô which lasted seven days from beginning to end.

In human-to-human transplants, kidneys from living donors tend to work better and more quickly than those from deceased donors, Locke said, and the pig kidneys behaved much more like a live donor transplant.

ÔÇ£What that means is, these are great kidneys, and theyÔÇÖre going to provide really great function for living persons, hopefully in the not-too-distant future,ÔÇØ Locke said.

The research team from NYU Langone has not published the findings from its ongoing work but shared updates Wednesday.

The team has been monitoring pig kidney transplants in a brain-dead decedent ÔÇô a man named Maurice Miller, known as Mo, who died of a brain tumor ÔÇô for nearly two months. Some immunosuppressive drugs were used, but the pigÔÇÖs thymus was also transplanted to help protect the kidneys from being attacked by the human immune system.

There has been ÔÇ£no evidence of rejection and normal renal function and clearance of toxins,ÔÇØ said Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute and chair of the surgery department. ÔÇ£The pig kidney appears to replace all of the important tasks that the human kidney manages.ÔÇØ

Researchers say that more work is needed, including studies in living human recipients, to establish whether pig kidney transplants could be a bridge or destination therapy for people with end-stage kidney disease, but they are hopeful about the progress being made.

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