Chinese doctors implant pig liver in human for first time

AFP | Paris

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Chinese doctors said yesterday that they had transplanted a liver from a genetically modified pig into a braindead human for the first time, raising hopes of a live-saving donor option for patients in the future.

Pigs have emerged as the best animal organ donors, with several living patients in the United States having received pig kidneys or hearts in the last few years.

Livers have proved trickier -- and had not previously been tested out inside a human body. But with a huge and growing demand for liver donations across the world, researchers hope that gene-edited pigs can offer at least temporary relief to seriously ill patients on long waiting lists.

Doctors at the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China, announced the field’s latest breakthrough in a study in the journal Nature.

A liver from a miniature pig, which had six edited genes to make it a better donor, was transplanted into a braindead adult at the hospital on March 10, 2024, according to the study.

The trial was terminated after 10 days at the request of the family, the doctors said, adding that they had followed strict ethical guidelines.

‘Bridge organ'

The patient, whose name, gender and other details were not revealed, still had their original liver, receiving what is called an auxiliary transplant.

The hope is that this kind of transplant can serve as a “bridge organ” to support the existing liver of sick people waiting on a human donor.

Over the 10 days, the doctors monitored the liver’s blood flow, bile production, immune response and other key functions.

The pig liver “functioned really well” and “smoothly secreted bile” as well as producing the key protein albumin, study co-author Lin Wang of the Xi’an hospital told a press conference.