Imagine waiting for a life-saving liver… What if it came from a pig? 🐷💓 In a huge leap for medical science, Chinese surgeons have pulled off the world's first transplant of a gene-edited pig liver into a living human patient.
On May 17, 2024, a team from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University on the Chinese mainland teamed up with researchers from Yunnan Agricultural University to make history. The donor pig had 10 gene tweaks: three pig genes were knocked out to avoid rapid rejection, and seven human genes were added to boost immune acceptance and reduce clotting risks.
The 71-year-old patient, whose liver tumor couldn't be surgically removed, received the pig liver as an 'auxiliary' organ to support their failing liver. For the first 31 days, everything looked amazing—no acute rejection, and the pig liver was doing its job!
On day 38, the team faced a hurdle when tiny blood clots formed in the transplanted organ. The auxiliary liver had to be removed, and the patient later faced other complications, passing away on day 171. Despite this outcome, the procedure proves a pig liver can function in a human for a clinically meaningful period.
Reported in the Journal of Hepatology, this breakthrough pushes xenotransplantation—transplants across species—closer to reality. Think of it as a 'bridge' therapy for patients awaiting a human donor liver. According to a review, this operation establishes proof-of-concept, but more research is needed before it becomes a routine treatment.
While we're not there yet, this milestone shows just how fast science is moving. Stay tuned as researchers continue to break barriers in organ transplants! 🌟
Reference(s):
World's first human with gene-edited pig liver survived for months
cgtn.com
