{"id":267289,"date":"2025-03-26T16:14:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/surgeons-carry-out-worlds-first-pig-to-human-liver-transplant\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T16:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:14:01","slug":"surgeons-carry-out-worlds-first-pig-to-human-liver-transplant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/surgeons-carry-out-worlds-first-pig-to-human-liver-transplant\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeons carry out world’s first pig-to-human liver transplant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Surgeons<\/div>\n
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Surgeons have carried out the world’s first liver transplant from a pig into a human recipient.<\/p>\n

The operation, carried out in China, used a liver from a pig that had been genetically modified to reduce the chance of the organ being rejected by a human immune system.<\/p>\n

The organ successfully produced bile and essential proteins in a patient who was brain-dead, but still alive.<\/p>\n

Relatives asked for the experiment to be stopped after 10 days, but the researchers say the organ could have functioned for longer.<\/p>\n

They hailed the transplant as a “great achievement”, and European experts have called it a significant milestone that could save lives in future.<\/p>\n

The surgical team, from Xijing Hospital in Xi’an, took the liver from a Bama miniature pig that had six key genes modified to improve compatibility of an organ when transplanted into a human.<\/p>\n

According to results published in the science journal Nature, the liver functioned normally, with good blood flow and no signs of rejection.<\/p>\n

Professor Lin Wang, who led the research team, said the transplant was carried out with full ethical approval from medical authorities and consent from the patient’s family.<\/p>\n

“Surgery was really successful,” he told a news conference.<\/p>\n

“The liver from the pig functioned very well in the human body. So it’s a great achievement.”<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
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Hearts and kidneys from genetically modified pigs have already been transplanted into a handful of living patients. Most died within weeks of the operation, but two people who had pig kidneys are understood to have survived in the United States.<\/p>\n

Professor Wang said a liver transplant from a pig is far more complicated.<\/p>\n

“A heart is just a pump, the kidney only produces urine,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But the liver has many functions, so this is a huge obstacle for us to solve.”<\/p>\n

Several research groups are experimenting with pigs raised in super-clean facilities for organ donation.<\/p>\n

Pigs are used because their organs are similar in size and structure to those in a human. But key genes need to be modified to reduce the risk of them being attacked by a patient’s immune system after transplantation.<\/p>\n

The Chinese researchers propose using pig organs as a temporary support, either to take the pressure off a patient’s liver so it can regenerate, or to give more time to find a permanent organ from a suitable human donor.<\/p>\n

There are currently more than 600 patients on the waiting list for a liver transplant in the UK. The average wait for an organ from a deceased donor is three to four months.<\/p>\n

Ivan Fernandez Vega, professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Oviedo in Spain, described the experiment as an important “milestone”.<\/p>\n

“The clinical implications are highly relevant, as optimising this approach could expand the pool of available organs and save lives in liver emergencies,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Chinese team is planning to repeat the experiment in more brain-dead patients, for longer periods, before progressing to the first clinical transplants in living people.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surgeons have carried out the world’s first liver transplant from a pig into a human recipient. The operation, carried out in China, used a liver from a pig that had been genetically modified to reduce the chance of the organ being rejected by a human immune system. The organ successfully produced bile and essential proteins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/03\/1920x1080\/skynews-pig-farm_6867618.jpg?20250326144548","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[559,22791,205423,39932,10792,2306],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267291,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267289\/revisions\/267291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}