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In a medical first, Chinese scientists successfully transplanted a lung from a genetically modified pig into a living brain-dead human. The lung survived for nine days and provided hope for the future of pig-to-human transplantation, or xenotransplantation.
The experiment, which involved a 39-year-old male who had been declared brain-dead prior to the procedure, occurred in Guangzhou, China, and the results were reported in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday. The scientists confirmed the person was brain-dead after suffering a brain hemorrhage and received permission from his family to perform the experiment.
Within a day of completing the pig-to-human lung transplant, the lung began showing signs of damage. On the third and sixth days, the scientists noticed signs of rejection from the recipient’s antibodies that damaged the lung. By day nine there had been some signs of recovery from that damage, but at that point they chose to end the experiment at the request of the patient’s family.
What experts are saying?
“For our team, this accomplishment is a meaningful beginning,” Guangzhou Medical University physician and coauthor Jiang Shi told STAT. “Lung xenotransplantation presents unique biological and technical challenges compared to other organs. Our aim is to create a rigorous scientific pathway toward a safe, durable lung xenograft, not to claim clinical readiness today.”
There was one problem with the experiment, however, according to experts, and that was that the patient’s other lung was still functioning so it was impossible to know if the pig lung was truly life-supporting.
“Their conclusion that they have a functioning pig lung is a little optimistic,” said Richard Pierson, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital who works on xenotransplantation.
Also, “Nobody would sign up for a nine-day lung transplant,” Dr. Adam Griesemer, a senior member of the xenotransplantation team for NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute who was not involved in the procedure, told CNN.