NEWS
31 May 2024

First pig-to-human liver transplant recipient 'doing very well'

The transplant aims to prolong the life of the patient and provide important lessons for doctors.

By Smriti Mallapaty

A 71-year-old man in China has become the first living person to receive a liver transplant from a genetically modified pig — and the fifth person reported to have received a pig organ. More than two weeks after the surgery, the man is “doing very well”, says Sun Beicheng, a surgeon at the First Affiliated hospital of Anhui Medical University who led the transplantation.

The surgeons have not released many details about the procedure, but researchers are encouraged by the apparent success. “It is very exciting news,” says Burcin Ekser, a transplant surgeon at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.

The liver is the latest in a series of pig organs introduced to people. Since early 2022, surgeons have transplanted pig hearts, kidneys and a thyroid into four people. Three died in the months after receiving their transplants, and researchers say their pre-existing poor health, which contributed to their selection as transplant candidates, makes it difficult to determine whether the transplants were a factor. One person who was operated on in mid-April is still alive today.

The transplants have allowed researchers to gain valuable insights into the feasibility of xenotransplantation — the transfer of organs from one species to another. Clinicians hope the technology might one day supply organs for the thousands of people who die waiting for a donor organ each year.

[...]