Chinese doctors are furthering research on allogeneic organ transplantation.

According to Japanese media reports, the study found that a genetically modified pig lung was transplanted into a man who had been declared brain dead and functioned for nine days. This was revealed in a newly released report. Comparison images of the pig lung's condition immediately after transplantation and four days later. In recent years, there have been several successful attempts to transplant pig kidneys and hearts into the human body, but this seems to be the first attempt to transplant a pig lung into a human body. Doctors hope that in the future, this could become an option for people in need of organs, but experts point out that this will not happen soon.

Researchers from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University did not identify the patient in the study, but instead identified him as a 39-year-old male diagnosed with brain death due to cerebral hemorrhage. The doctors obtained consent from the man's family and transplanted the pig's lungs. The results of this study were published in the journal "Nature Medicine" on the 25th.

In human-to-human or animal-to-human transplantation (also known as xenotransplantation), doctors closely monitor for infections and rejection reactions.

The patient received multiple drugs to reduce the risk of infection and rejection. The lungs themselves had undergone six gene edits, and the donor pigs were raised in extremely clean and strictly controlled environments throughout their lives.

In this study, the researchers reported that there were no immediate signs of rejection after the transplant, but problems arose just one day later.

Specifically, the man experienced widespread swelling throughout his body, leading to fluid accumulation in the tissues. This was believed to be caused by impaired blood flow. The lungs not only help with breathing but also play an important role in the circulatory system.

Although there were some signs of partial recovery in the days following the transplant, the doctors confirmed that signs indicated that despite all preventive measures, the man's body began rejecting the organ.

At the request of the man's family, the doctors stopped the experiment.

In a new research paper, the researchers said: "Although this study demonstrated the feasibility of pulmonary xenotransplantation from pigs to humans, significant challenges remain in terms of organ rejection and infection. Then they concluded that more research is needed before this procedure can be repeated in clinical trials."

The demand for organ transplantation around the world is huge. In the United States alone, the waiting list for all organ transplants in 2023 was twice the number of completed transplants.

Last year, over 48,000 transplant surgeries were performed in the United States, but more than 103,000 people were on the waiting list. According to data from the Federal Health Resources Administration (HRSA), approximately 13 people die each day while waiting for a transplant in the United States.

For the past 30 years, pig valves have been transplanted into humans. Organ transplantation is more complex, but doctors have confirmed limited successful cases of genetically modified pig hearts and kidneys. Transplantation of genetically modified pig livers has also been attempted, but the success rate remains low, at least for now.

So far, the most successful case was a man in Massachusetts, USA, who received a genetically modified pig kidney at Massachusetts General Hospital in January of this year and is still alive today.

Dr. Adam Grisham, a transplant surgeon at the Langone Transplant Institute at New York University, emphasized that the number of days the pig lung functioned was short and stressed the importance of further research for successful lung transplantation.

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1841655737385996/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.