Chinese Researchers Successfully Transplant Pig Kidney Into Human: A Medical Breakthrough!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese researchers on Wednesday reported new progress in the field of animal-to-human organ transplants, including a successful pig kidney transplant and evidence suggesting pig livers might also be viable for future use.

A Chinese patient has become the third person globally known to live with a genetically modified pig kidney. Additionally, the same research team shared findings from an experiment where a pig liver was implanted into a brain-dead individual.

Scientists are engaging in genetic modification of pigs so their organs more closely resemble those of humans, aiming to mitigate the transplant shortage. In the United States, initial xenotransplants involving two pig hearts and two pig kidneys were short-lived. However, two additional recipients of pig kidneys are currently faring well: a woman from Alabama who underwent surgery in November and a man from New Hampshire operated on in January. A clinical trial in the United States is set to commence soon.

Nearly three weeks after the kidney operation, the Chinese patient “is doing very well” and the pig kidney is also performing excellently, reported Dr. Lin Wang from Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an at a press briefing this week.

Wang, who is part of the hospital’s xenotransplant team, mentioned that the kidney recipient is still in the hospital undergoing tests. Chinese media have reported that the patient is a 69-year-old woman who was diagnosed with kidney failure eight years ago.

However, Wang highlighted a potential next step in xenotransplantation: learning to transplant pig livers. His team reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday that a pig liver transplanted into a brain-dead person survived for ten days without early signs of rejection. He noted that the pig liver produced bile and albumin, crucial for basic organ function, though not as effectively as human livers do.

The liver presents a complex challenge due to its multiple functions, including waste removal, nutrient and medication breakdown, infection fighting, iron storage, and blood clotting regulation.

“We found that it could function somewhat in a human,” Wang stated, speculating that it might be sufficient to support a failing human liver.

Last year in the United States, surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania attempted such “bridge” support by externally connecting a pig liver to a human body with brain death to filter blood, similar to dialysis for failing kidneys. The American pig developer eGenesis is exploring this approach.

In China, Wang’s team did not remove the deceased person’s own liver but implanted the pig liver adjacent to it.

This “complicates the picture,” commented Dr. Parsia Vagefi, a liver transplant surgeon at UT Southwestern Medical Center who was not involved in the study. “It’s hopefully a first step, but still, like any good research, raises more questions than answers.”

Wang mentioned that his team later replaced another brain-dead person’s human liver with a pig liver and is currently analyzing the outcome.

According to media reports, another Chinese hospital last year transplanted a pig liver into a living patient after removing part of their cancerous liver, but the outcome of that experiment remains unclear.