First pig liver transplant lasts for 10 days
A pig experiment to search for a pathogen-free facility to provide liver xenotransplants to a patient with liver failure
The procedure was intended to test whether genetically modified pig organs could one day be used to supply hospitals for transplants. In China, more than one million people are affected byLiver failure every year but only 60 to 70 of these get a transplant. In the past few years surgeons in the United States have been performing pig hearts and other transplant procedures on people who have been declared dead because they lack brain function.
This means that whereas heart and kidney xenotransplants have been touted as possible long-term organ replacements, liver xenotransplants are seen mainly as a short-term fix for people with liver failure. They could help someone who has sustained damage due to alcohol or drug use, or they could give someone more time to wait for a human donor.
The pig was tested negative for more than a dozen pathogens, including the type 2 strain of mycoplasma pneumoniae, which was bred in a specialized pathogen-free facility. He has seen no sign of rejection of the organs so far. Cooper says that this is encouraging.
In addition to taking blood samples daily, researchers will also look at immune response, infection risk, and liver function in detail. If there’s acute rejection, we are having a pathologist evaluate it.
A clinically dead person’s xenotransplantation and a donated pig organ: A long-term impact in the survival of living people
The surgery was approved by the recipient’s family and several university committees, says Wang. It was done according to the relevant national and international regulations.
Next time they remove a dead person’s existing organ, they will do it in another clinically dead person.
Mohiuddin points out that although clinically dead people are a useful model for assessing the viability of xenotransplantation in living people, that usefulness is limited, because once a person’s brain ceases activity, they undergo hormonal changes. And it isn’t yet clear how long someone with no cognitive function can be maintained on a ventilator and with a donated pig organ, he says. Two months was the longest documented case.
She says she hopes that the team publishes insights about the procedure in peer-reviewed publications to determine which approach is more feasible.
Slayman had a transplant at the hospital, he had been on treatment for seven years. Slayman’s transplant failed after five years and he had to go back to doing dialysis in May. He’s since been suffering serious complications.
“I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” Slayman said in a statement released by the hospital.
“When my transplanted kidney began failing in 2023, I again trusted my care team at MGH to meet my goals of not just improving my quality of life but extending it,” Slayman said in the hospital’s statement, adding the doctors explained the “pros and cons of this procedure.”
Genetically modified cloned pigs at a bioethicists’ farm: A breakthrough in a new frontier in medicine
Several biotech companies are racing to develop a supply of cloned pigs whose DNA has been genetically modified so they won’t be rejected by the human body, spread pig viruses to people or cause other complications. NPR was given exclusive access to a research farm that is breeding these animals for Revivicor Inc.
“We are grateful for the courageous contribution of the patient and to the advancement of transplantation science,” said Mike Curtis, chief executive officer for eGenesis in the statement. “This represents a new frontier in medicine and demonstrates the potential of genome engineering to change the live of millions of patients.”
The field is stirring excitement about harnessing cloning and gene-editing technologies to solve the persistent shortage of organs for human transplantation. More than 103,000 people are currently on the waiting list for organs. They die every day because they can’t get one.
But the research is also raising several concerns. The risk of spreading animal Viruses to humans is one of the concerns. Another is about slaughtering thousands of animals every year to harvest their organs. Some wonder if the organs can be tested on gravely ill patients.
L. Syd M. Johnson a bioethicist at the upstate medical university said that they need to be very careful. “I have a lot of concerns about a therapy that is very much unproven.”
A US hospital has performed the world’s first genetically modified pig liver transplant on a person who was declared dead because he lacked brain function. The surgery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital was carried out on 48-year-old Richard Slayman. “I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant,” Slayman said.