China successfully transplants pig liver into brain-dead person

The surgery took place on March 10 at the Air Force Medical University Hospital, as reported by the media on March 15. The pig liver was genetically modified and transplanted into a brain-dead person to simulate a treatment for liver failure patients. The transplant was aimed at serving as a study on the therapeutic potential of xenotransplantation, providing a theoretical basis and additional data for future clinical practice.

This is the first reported case of pig liver transplantation to a human in the world. The surgical team was led by Dou Kefeng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tao Kaishan, director of the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery at Xijing Hospital (Air Force Medical University).

The gene-edited pigs were provided by Clonorgan Biotechnology. Researchers used technology to remove three antigens that cause transplant rejection, replacing them with three human proteins.

The recipient of the pig liver transplant was a patient with severe head trauma who was declared brain dead after three assessments. The family agreed to participate in the study without remuneration, contributing to the advancement of medical science.

During surgery, the transplanted liver began to secrete bile as soon as blood flow was restored to the body. The patient did not experience acute rejection, and the liver functioned continuously for 96 hours.

Research shows that xenotransplantation using pig liver is feasible. Experts have achieved breakthroughs in scientific theory innovation, overcoming core technological challenges and opening up medical applications. It plays an important role in treatment and repair, functional reconstruction and replacement of organ resources that are in short supply.

China has nearly 400 million people with liver disease, of which more than 7 million have cirrhosis, and about 300,000 to 500,000 people have liver failure each year. For people with cirrhosis, liver transplantation is the only effective treatment. However, the number of donated organs is much less than the needs of patients. Therefore, research on xenotransplantation is especially important, and is expected to be useful for people with end-stage liver disease.

Research on organ transplantation has made great progress in recent years. From 2021 to 2023, American scientists completed four experiments on transplanting gene-edited pig organs into brain-dead people, and two pig heart transplants into living people.

According to Mr. Dou, the anatomical and physiological functions of the liver are more complex than those of the kidney and heart, so the gene-edited pig liver cannot completely replace the human liver. However, the above experiment provides a theoretical basis and data for future clinical applications.

Dou and Tao's team has been experimenting with cross-species transplants for 11 years. They have previously completed several pig-to-monkey organ transplants.