Friday, October 10, 2025 - Doctors in China have reported a landmark success in xenotransplantation, stating that a genetically modified pig liver was transplanted into a 71-year-old man who lived for 171 days after the procedure.
For 38 of those days, the pig organ was in place, providing
critical support, a first for a pig-to-human liver transplant to be published
in a peer-reviewed journal.
The procedure, performed in May 2024 at the First Affiliated
Hospital of Anhui Medical University, utilized a liver from an 11-month-old
cloned pig that had undergone 10 genetic edits to minimize the risk of
infection or rejection. The man was also given immune-suppressing drugs to
prevent his body from rejecting the foreign organ.
While scientists have seen success transplanting pig hearts
and kidneys into humans, the liver has long been viewed as a more challenging
candidate due to its large size, dual blood supply, and diverse functions,
which include filtering blood, removing toxins, and producing clotting
proteins.
Dr. Beicheng Sun, president of the First Affiliated Hospital
of Anhui Medical University and a co-author of the new study, expressed
optimism: “Everyone always says, ‘oh, liver is too complicated to transplant,
compared to the heart or kidney,’ but after this, in the future, I think people
will think differently.”
Experts say the study, published on Thursday in the Journal
of Hepatology, confirms the feasibility of using a pig liver as a bridging
strategy. This approach would help a patient with severe liver disease survive
long enough for their own liver to regenerate or for a suitable human donor
organ to become available.
The patient had been hospitalized for hepatitis B-related
cirrhosis and a large, inoperable tumor. Surgeons determined that removing the
tumor would leave too little of his own liver to support his metabolic needs.
With no matching human donor available, the patient and his
daughter agreed to the experimental xenotransplantation, a decision Dr. Sun
emphasized was a significant contribution to the field of science.
Doctors removed the man’s tumor and transplanted the
gene-edited pig liver onto the remainder of his native organ.
The transplant initially appeared successful. The pig liver
quickly began functioning, turning red and secreting bile, with other liver
function indicators significantly improving within the first day. There were no
signs of acute rejection at day 10, and the man’s own remaining liver tissue
seemed to be performing better.
However, by day 25, the patient's heart began showing signs
of stress, and tests indicated inflammatory changes. Despite changes to his
immune-suppressing drugs, signs of rejection worsened, suggesting the
development of xenotransplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy
(microscopic blood clots damaging small vessels).
On day 37, the man’s condition deteriorated, and doctors
removed the pig organ on day 38, as the patient’s own liver was considered
capable of sustaining him. He continued to function well until day 135, when he
developed upper gastrointestinal bleeding, which caused his death 171 days
after the initial transplant.
Dr. Heiner Wedemeyer, a professor at Hannover Medical School
in Germany and co-author of an editorial accompanying the study, called the
experiment “groundbreaking.” He noted the procedure offers a completely new
opportunity to bridge patients with acute liver failure who may not qualify for
human transplantation.
The research provides crucial insight, confirming that
pig-to-human liver transplantation “can provide effective hepatic support while
preserving part of the native liver, confirming its clinical feasibility as a
bridging strategy,” the study authors concluded.
The demand for human organs far outpaces the supply, with
livers being the second biggest need after kidneys.
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