Human receives liver transplant from a PIG in world-first experiment

A PIG’S liver has been transplanted into a living human for the first time by Chinese scientists.

Surgeons have grafted hearts and kidneys before but not proven success with a liver, which is a more complex organ.

Medics at the Fourth Military Medical University in China edited the genes of a mini-pig and transplanted its liver tissue into a brain-dead person.

The organ was not rejected by the immune system and appeared to function normally for 10 days until the study ended at the patient’s family’s request.

Transplants are the best treatment for liver failure but patients often wait months or years for a donor.

Data last year showed more than 800 Brits were on NHS waiting lists and a third of patients wait longer than two years for their operation.

This is an important study that advances the field

Professor Peter FriendUniversity of Oxford

Experts hope pig organs can be used to bridge the gaps while people wait for human donors.

They are similar in size and genetics to humans, but need DNA editing to try and prevent the immune system rejecting them.

The pig liver’s smaller size means it could be added into the body without removing the diseased human organ, to help it function temporarily.

The liver’s function is to filter and clean blood after it has circulated through the body, and to produce bile that is vital for food digestion.

Scientists in Pennsylvania last year attached a pig liver to a human patient and had it successfully filter blood, but it was not transplanted into the body.

Study author Professor Lin Wang said: “The liver collected from the modified pig functioned very well in the human body. It's a great achievement.

“This surgery was really successful.”;

Writing in the journal Nature, he added: “Auxiliary liver transplantation is an ideal bridge therapy for people with liver failure, because it is not difficult to remove pig liver and reconstruct the vein when the function of the original liver is restored or when a suitable donor liver is available.

“This unique pig-to-human liver xenotransplantation provides critical information that cannot be provided by animal experiments alone.”;

Liver may not have worked long-term

Professor Peter Friend, a transplant expert at Oxford University, was not involved with the research but said: “This is an important study that advances the field.

“The genetic modifications are similar, although not identical, to those used in the recently reported heart and kidney clinical xenotransplants.

“The presence of the brain-dead donor’s native liver means that we cannot tell the extent to which this xenograft would have supported a patient in liver failure.

“However, this study does demonstrate that these genetic modifications allow the liver to avoid rejection.”;

Rafael Matesanz, of the Spanish National Transplant Organisation, added: “This is an important experiment which opens up a different path to what has been tried so far.”;