In a significant development for the field of xenotransplantation, surgeons in China have successfully transplanted a pig lung into a brain-dead human recipient. The groundbreaking procedure, detailed in the journal Nature Medicine, represents a modest yet promising step toward utilising genetically engineered pigs as a viable source of organs for human transplantation.
The operation, performed in May 2024 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, involved replacing the left lung of a 39-year-old male who had experienced a severe brain haemorrhage. The pig lung, which had been genetically modified to enhance its compatibility with human tissue, functioned in its new host for nine days. During this period, the organ effectively exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide, demonstrating its ability to perform its primary function.
This achievement is particularly noteworthy given the difficulty of lung transplants, even between human donors and recipients. The genetically edited pig lung successfully evaded hyperacute rejection, an immediate and often devastating immune response that can cause a transplant to fail within hours. This success highlights the potential of using gene-edited pigs to overcome a major hurdle in xenotransplantation.
According to Richard Pierson III, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, this work provides crucial insights into the behaviour of a pig lung within a human body. The achievement builds on recent successes in the field, including three instances where gene-edited pig kidneys survived for several months in living human recipients. This transplant also highlights China's growing leadership in the development of this innovative medical technology.
"This work is very welcome in furthering our understanding, but it marks an incremental step forward. There is much more work required and we are not on the dawn of an era of lung xenotransplantation using pig lungs," Andrew Fisher, a professor of respiratory transplant medicine at Newcastle University told The Guardian.
