The doctors in China said on Wednesday (Mar 26) that they had transplanted a liver from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead human for the first time. The transplanted liver functioned normally for the duration of the investigation, with no signs of rejection.
A liver from a miniature pig, which had six edited genes to make it a better donor, was transplanted into a brain-dead adult, whose name and identity were not revealed.
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This breakthrough has raised hopes of a life-saving donor option for patients in the future as the demand for liver donations is already massive and continues to grow across the world. The researchers now hope that gene-edited pigs can be helpful for those who need the organ urgently but are on long waiting lists.
A team of doctors led by Kai-Shan Tao, Zhao-Xu Yang, Xuan Zhang and Hong-Tao Zhang of the Fourth Military Medical University in China said that the liver performed its basic metabolic functions in a patient diagnosed with brain death for 10 days.
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Pig organs were used by several living patients in the United States who had received pig kidneys or hearts in the last few years. But not liver. The liver functions are trickier and more complex than those of the kidney. Hence, the transplantation is difficult.
The study, titled “Gene-modified pig-to-human liver xenotransplantation”, was published in the journal Nature on March 26, 2025. The authors said, “In this study, under the strict supervision of our hospital ethics committee, we xenotransplanted the liver from a six-gene-edited pig to a brain-dead person.”
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The surgery was officially performed on March 10, 2024. At the request of the recipient’s family, the study was artificially terminated 10 days after surgery (March 20, 2024). But during the period of 10 days, the doctors monitored the liver’s blood flow, bile production, immune response and other key functions.
The pig liver “functioned really well” and “smoothly secreted bile” as well as producing the key protein albumin, study co-author Lin Wang of the Xi’an hospital told a press conference. “It’s a great achievement” that could help people with liver problems in the future, he added.
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What are the challenges?
Lin said that transplants of livers have proved difficult because they carry out several different functions. They filter the body’s blood, break down things like drugs and alcohol, as well as produce bile that carries away waste and breaks down fats.
The pig liver produced far smaller amounts of bile and albumin than a human liver could achieve, Lin said, further adding that more research is needed for better results in future because the doctors are now planning to conduct a trial of the gene-edited pig liver in a living human.
(With inputs from agencies)