And Chinese medical team On Wednesday the transplant announced for the first time, the liver of a genetically modified pig to a human with brain death, which generates hopes of a donor option that can save lives in the future.
The pigs are considered the most compatible animals for an organ donation, and several living patients in the United States have received kidneys or pork hearts in recent years.
Hígados have proven to be the most difficult organs to transplant, and so far they had not been tested within a human body.
But with a huge and growing demand for liver donations worldwide, researchers expect genetically modified pigs to offer at least temporary relief to seriously ill patients, who survive in long waiting lists.
The doctors of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an announced this decisive step in a study published in Nature magazine.
The liver of a mini -loss (“Micro Pig”) with six genes that were edited to make it a better donor, was transplanted to an adult with brain death in the hospital on March 10, 2024, the study announced.
The essay ended after 10 days at the request of the family, the doctors said, emphasizing that they had remained strict ethical guidelines.
“Bridge organ”
The patient-whose name and other details were not revealed-still had its original liver, so it received what is known as 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.
For 10 days the doctors monitored the blood flow of the liver, the production of bile, the immune response and other key functions.
The pork liver “worked really well” and “Secret bile in a fluid way” in addition to producing the key albumin protein, said Lin Wang, co -author of the study, of the Hospital de Xi’an, at 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 advance, but emphasized that this initial 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 and are capable of decomposing medications or alcohol, in addition to producing bile that eliminates waste and decomposes fats.
The pork liver produced much lower amounts of bile and albumin than a human liver would be capable, Lin warned.
More research is needed, including the study of the pork liver for more than 10 days, he added.
The next step will be to test the pork liver genetically edited in a living human.
“Awesome”
The Professor of Transplants from the University of Oxford, Peter Friend, who was not involved 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 short term),” he told AFP.
“This is a useful proof of the compatibility of genetically modified livers with humans and points to a future in which these livers can provide support for patients with liver failure.”
Lin emphasized that collaboration with American researchers was crucial.
“To be frank, we have learned a lot from all the research carried out and investigated by American doctors,” he said.
Last year, scientists from the University of Pennsylvania connected a pork liver to a patient with brain death – but instead of being transplanted, the organ remained out of the body.
Both American receptors from pork transplants died.
Instead, Towana Looney, 53, returned home in Alabama after receiving a pork kidney on November 25, 2024.