A pig liver and two pig kidneys worked in a human body for five days
Organ transplantation has a supply problem, and the proposed future keeps getting more science-fictional: gene-edited pigs supplying replacement parts for humans.
Many believe xenotransplantation could be an important part of plugging the gap between donor organs and transplant recipients. A new study from scientists in China reports the first-ever successful bilateral kidney and whole liver transplant using pig organs in a deceased human.
The patient’s own liver was removed for use in another transplant surgery for a living human recipient. At the same time, the xenotransplant procedure was performed. According to the study, with the consent of the patient’s family, his organ function was sustained for five days.
Up to now, the small number of xenotransplants that have been carried out in both deceased and living people have involved only one organ at a time, and a whole liver has never been attempted. The more organs you want to transfer, the greater the complexity of the surgery and the higher the risk of complications. This study shows it might be possible.
The study found that the transplanted organs performed key liver and kidney functions during the five-day observation period, though there were early signs of immune response. That matters, but so does the caution label: this was one deceased recipient, followed for only five days. It is a proof of concept, not a new hospital menu.
Still, the direction is clear. There are not enough human organs for the people who need them. If pigs can be safely engineered to provide functioning organs, the phrase “organ donor” may eventually get much weirder.
Medicine keeps finding new ways to make the phrase “spare parts” uncomfortable.
The ability to grow custom organs for anyone who needs them should have been the focus of stem cell research for the last twenty years. Instead we have bans on using fetal tissue and stalled research.