This may be a first you've heard this, but did you know that China has started experimenting with pig organs--liver--on humans?
You read right. Based on reports, yesterday (27 March) Chinese doctors transplanted a pig liver to from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead human for the first time.
The act was done to test and see if the pig liver would work on the human, to raise hopes of a live-saving option for patients in the future.
Pigs have actually become the top animal organ donors, with several patients in the States receiving pig kidneys and pig hearts recently.
Liver transplants have been more difficult and hadn't been tried in humans before, till yesterday.
With a high demand for liver donations, researchers hope gene-edited pigs can help seriously ill patients on waiting lists.
The process was called 'Bridge Organ'. This means that the patient still had their original liver and just receives an auxiliary transplant, where the secondary liver, supports the primary damaged liver.
This can help those who are in critical condition and are on the waitlist for an organ.
Doctors monitored the pig liver's blood flow, bile production, immune response, and other key functions for 10 days.
The liver worked well, secreting bile smoothly and producing the important protein albumin, according to Lin Wang from Xi'an hospital.
He called it a great achievement, a medical breakthrough but still one that's too early to confirm if they can actually replace a human liver.
More research is needed. As such, step #2 would be to trial the gene-edited pig liver in a living human.
