Chinese Doctors Successfully Transplant Genetically Modified Pig Liver into Brain-Dead Human

Chinese doctors have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig liver into a brain-dead human, marking a potential breakthrough in addressing the shortage of human liver donors.

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Chinese doctors said on Wednesday that they had transplanted a liver from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead human for the first time, reports news agency AFP. According to the report, pigs have emerged as the best animal organ donors, with several living patients in the United States having received pig kidneys or hearts in the last few years.

Livers had not previously been tested out inside a human body. But with the growing demand for liver donations across the world, researchers hope that the gene-edited pigs can offer at least temporary relief to seriously ill patients on long waiting lists.

Doctors at the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, China, announced the field's latest breakthrough in a study in the journal Nature.

In 2024, a liver from a miniature pig, which had six edited genes to make it a better donor, was transplanted into a brain-dead adult at the hospital. The trial was terminated ten days after at the request of the family, the doctors said, adding that they had followed strict ethical guidelines.

The patient, whose details have not yet been revealed, received what is called an auxiliary transplant. The pig liver "functioned really well" and "smoothly secreted bile" as well as produced the key protein albumin, study co-author Lin Wang of the Xi'an hospital told a press conference, reports AFP.

"It's a great achievement" that could help people with liver problems in the future, he added. Other researchers also congratulated this breakthrough but also emphasised that this early step could not confirm whether the pig organ would work as the replacement for human livers.