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October 10, 2025<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Pig Liver Surgery Moves Us Closer to Transplants from Other Species<\/p>\n
Surgeons in China transplanted part of pig liver into a patient with an incurable cancerous tumor, and it functioned for more than a month<\/p>\n
By Humberto Basilio edited by Tanya Lewis<\/span><\/p>\n In another procedure, a team led by Qin Weijun, a doctor at Xijing Hospital of the Air Force Medical University, performs a surgery to transplant a genetically modified pig kidney into a brain-dead recipient at the hospital in Xi’an, China on March 25, 2024.<\/p>\n Xijing Hospital of the Air Force Medical University\/Handout via Xinhua\/Alamy<\/p>\n Chinese scientists have performed what is thought to be the first transplant of a genetically modified pig liver segment into a person with cancer. Surgeons reported that the transplanted section of the pig organ supported the patient\u2019s metabolic functions properly for 38 days, at which point it had to be removed because of complications. The patient lived another 133 days and died from gastrointestinal bleeding. The results were published on October 8 in the Journal of Hepatology.<\/p>\n Transplanting organs from other animals into humans\u2014known as xenotransplantation\u2014has made notable strides in recent years. The pig liver transplant \u201cdemonstrates that xenogeneic organs can not only survive short term but also perform physiological functions in the complex environment of a living body,\u201d says Beicheng Sun, president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University in China, who conducted the study with his colleagues This \u201ccreates a bridge to give a patient more time\u201d to recover or to receive a donor organ in case their liver must be completely replaced.<\/p>\n The patient was at risk of liver rupture because of a tumor on the organ\u2019s right side. His remaining left lobe was insufficient to sustain life, according to the doctors that treated him. Sun and his team implanted a section of the pig liver as an \u201cauxiliary\u201d graft. This way, part of the man\u2019s own liver remained in place, allowing it to regenerate while the pig organ temporarily supported his metabolism. The liver is the only human organ capable of regenerating itself after injury.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The genetically engineered pig liver began functioning immediately after the surgery, secreting golden-yellow bile and synthesizing pig-derived albumin protein, clotting factors and bile acids. \u201cThis provided critical support to the patient, stabilizing his vital signs,\u201d Sun says.<\/p>\n Complications appeared in the second month, when the patient developed thrombotic microangiopathy, a dangerous clotting disorder linked to immune activation. Doctors treated him with immunosuppressive drugs and a blood-filtering procedure called plasma exchange. When tests showed the condition was worsening, the team removed the pig liver on day 38.<\/p>\n Afterward, the man\u2019s remaining liver took over, and his condition remained stable for more than three months. One day 171, he died from gastrointestinal bleeding, unrelated to the transplant itself, the authors reported in the study.<\/p>\n The core principle of auxiliary transplantation, Sun says, is to avoid removing all of the patient\u2019s own liver. With temporary support from the pig liver, the patient\u2019s own left lobe was able to recover and regenerate. \u201cThis enabled the patient to survive on his regenerated native liver after the pig liver was removed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The surgery \u201cis a step in the right direction,\u201d says Muhammad Mohiuddin, a surgeon at the University of Maryland and president of the International Xenotransplantation Association, who was not involved in the experiment.<\/p>\n In August a team of researchers in China performed the first-ever pig-to-human lung xenotransplant. And earlier this year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first clinical trial of pig kidney transplantation.<\/p>\n Currently, patients in the U.S. are waiting for Food and Drug Administration approval for ex vivo pig liver perfusion\u2014a procedure that allows doctors to use pig organs outside the body to temporarily replace the functions of a damaged human liver, giving patients more time to wait for a suitable donor. Mohiuddin says the new study shows that a similar outcome might be achieved through surgery. \u201cThe pig liver was not a substitute but a bridge to support the human liver,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Although the procedure was \u201ctechnically successful,\u201d more studies are needed to confirm that the pig liver extract truly benefited the regeneration of the human liver, says surgeon Parsia Vagefi of UT Southwestern Medical Center, who was not involved in the new study. After these types of surgeries, \u201cthere\u2019s always the question of how much the pig liver is actually doing and how much the human liver is functioning,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n When surgeons move to studies where the native liver is completely failing and a pig liver rescues the patient, Vagefi says, \u201cwe\u2019ll be able to really see if the pig liver provides enough support to actually bridge someone\u201d to a human liver transplant.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 10, 2025 3 min read Pig Liver Surgery Moves Us Closer to Transplants from Other Species Surgeons in China transplanted part of pig liver into a patient with an incurable cancerous tumor, and it functioned for more than a month By Humberto Basilio edited by Tanya Lewis In another procedure, a team led by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[761,6492,3056,10741,16298],"class_list":{"0":"post-27267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-human","9":"tag-liver","10":"tag-part","11":"tag-pig","12":"tag-transplanted"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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