Chinese patient receives first successful pig-to-human liver transplant

scientists safely Genetically engineered pig liver transplanted into human for the first time

Chinese researchers inserted livers taken from pigs that had been gene-edited to remove proteins that can cause organ rejection into the bodies of patients whose brains had stopped functioning and who were clinically dead. did. After 96 hours, the patients showed no signs of organ rejection, and both blood and bile flow in the transplanted liver were functioning properly, the researchers said.

The Chinese Air Force Medical University said in a post on social media platform WeChat that the transplant was “the first of its kind in the world.”

US researchers have previously performed xenotransplants (transplanting organs of one species into another species) with gene-edited pig kidneys and hearts in clinically deceased human patients. .