The first person in the world to successfully receive a pig liver transplant

On May 17, China successfully performed the world's first pig liver transplant to a living human at a hospital in Anhui Province. The pig's internal organs were edited with 10 genes.

The transplanted liver functions normally, secreting about 200ml of bile per day. Dr. Sun Beichen, President of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, said the success of the transplant will bring hope to future cases of liver cancer.

The patient was a 71-year-old man with a large tumor in the right lobe of his liver. He was in critical condition and had few treatment options. During surgery, doctors removed the liver tumor and found that the left lobe was not strong enough to support the liver's function.

To perform the transplant procedure, the team used a 514g liver from an 11-month-old male pig weighing 32kg and edited with 10 genes. Yunnan Agricultural University bred the pig.

Dr. Sun said he used an innovative method of transplanting a pig liver into the patient's right liver, rotated 45 degrees.

According toChina Daily, the patient can now walk, liver function as well as many other health indicators have returned to normal.

“The surgery sets the standards for surgical procedures for pig liver transplantation into humans, providing comprehensive solutions for the timing of immunosuppressive drugs and patient care before, during and after gene-engineered liver surgery,” Dr. Sun shared.

Last month, Chinese scientists successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig liver into a brain-dead patient.

According to an article published in the magazineNatureRecently, xenotransplantation (from one species to another), especially from pigs to humans, has long been studied by surgeons due to the current scarcity of human organs.

Scientists have high hopes that pigs will be potential organ donors due to their size and anatomical compatibility with human organs. However, the human body tends to reject transplanted organs. In addition, patients face the risk of contracting viruses that may be present in the new organ.

Previously, according toCGTNAll xenotransplants to humans have been performed in the United States. The first patient was a 57-year-old man who received a pig heart and survived 60 days after the surgery. The second man received a pig heart in 2023 and survived 40 days.

The first person to receive a pig kidney transplant died on May 7, two months after the transplant. However, doctors confirmed that the patient's death was not related to the surgery because the kidney was still functioning well before his death.

The fourth living human xenotransplant was performed on a 54-year-old woman who received a new kidney in New Jersey.