Chinese Doctors Implant Pig Liver in Human for 1st Time

AFP-Jiji

11:59 JST, April 2, 2025

PARIS (AFP-Jiji) — Chinese doctors say that they have transplanted a liver from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead human for the first time, raising hopes of a live-saving donor option for patients in the future.

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 have proved trickier — and had not previously been tested inside a human body.

But with a huge and growing demand for liver donations across the world, researchers hope that 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 on March 26 the field’s latest breakthrough in a study in the journal Nature.

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 on March 10, 2024, according to the study.

The trial was terminated after 10 days at the request of the family, the doctors said, adding that they had followed strict ethical guidelines.