Chinese doctors said Wednesday that they had transplanted a liver of a genetically modified pig to a human man with brain for the first time, which increases the hope of an option of living savings donors for patients in the future.
The pigs have emerged as the best donors of animal organs, and several living patients in the United States received kidneys or hearts in recent years.
Hígados have proven to be more complicated, and had not been previously tested within a human body. But with a great and growing demand for liver donations worldwide, researchers expect pigs edited by gene can offer at least temporary relief to severely sick patients in long waiting lists.
The doctors of the Fourth University of Military Medicine in Xi’an, China, announced the last advance of the field in a study in the magazine Nature.
A liver of a miniature pig, which had six genes edited to make it a better donor, was transplanted to an adult with brain death in the hospital on March 10, 2024, according to the study.
The trial was completed after 10 days at the request of the family, the doctors said, and added that they had remained strict ethical.
‘Organ bridge’
The patient, whose name, gender and other details were not revealed, still had its original liver, receiving what is called an auxiliary transplant.
The hope is that this type of transplant can serve as a “bridge organ” to support the existing liver of sick people waiting for a human donor.
During the 10 days, doctors monitored the blood flow of the liver, biliary production, immune response and other key functions.
The pork liver “worked really well” and “Secret bile without problems”, in addition to producing the key protein albumin, the co -author of the Lin Wang study of the Xi’an hospital said a press conference. “It’s a great achievement” that could help people with liver problems in the future, he added.
Other researchers also praised the progress, but emphasized that this first step could not confirm whether the pork organ would work as a replacement for human livers.
Hígados transplants have proven difficult because they carry out several different functions, unlike hearts, for example, that they simply pump blood, Lin said.
The livers filter the blood of the body, break down things like drugs and alcohol, as well as producing bile that carries the waste and breakd down the fats.
“The pork liver produced much smaller amounts of bile and albumin than a human liver could achieve,” Lin said. “More research is needed, including the study of the pork liver for more than 10 days,” he added.
Next, doctors plan to try pork liver edited by the gene in a living human.
‘Awesome’
The Professor of Transplant at the University of Oxford, Peter Friend, who did not participate in the study, said the results were “valuable and impressive.”
However, “this is not a replacement for the liver transplantation of human donors [at least in the near-term]”, Said AFP In an email.
“This is a useful proof of the compatibility of genetically modified hígados with humans and points out a future in which such hígados can provide support to patients in liver failure.”
Lin emphasized that collaboration with American researchers was crucial.
“To be honest, we have learned a lot from all the investigations carried out and investigated by the doctors of the United States,” he said.
Last year, scientists from the University of Pennsylvania joined a pork liver to a patient with brain death, but instead of being transplanted, the organ remained out of the body.
Both recipients of pork transplants died.
However, Towana Looney, 53, is back in Alabama after receiving a pork kidney on November 25, 2024.
