Posted on 03/27/2025 9:28:35 AM PDT by algore
A genetically modified pig liver that was transplanted into a brain-dead patient appeared to function successfully inside their body for 10 days, according to the scientists who performed the groundbreaking procedure.
The surgery, at a Chinese hospital last year, is thought to mark the first time a pig liver has been transplanted into a human. It raises the prospect of pig livers serving as a “bridging organ” for patients on the waiting list for a transplant or to support liver function while their own organ regenerates.
The advance is the latest in a series of transplants involving pig organs since 2022. Surgeons in the US and China have transplanted pig hearts, kidneys and a thymus gland into a small number of patients. Several died within months, although their severe illness at the outset meant it was unclear whether the transplants were a factor. But others have made a good recovery and have left hospital.
The latest procedure was carried out in a 50-year-old man diagnosed with brain death after a severe head injury. The patient’s own liver was intact and, in a surgery that took more than 10 hours, the organ taken from a genetically modified Bama miniature pig was plumbed into his blood supply as an additional liver.
The pig had six genetic modifications aimed at preventing immune rejection. These included deactivating genes that contribute to the production of sugars on the surface of pig cells, which the human immune system attacks, and introducing genes that express human proteins to “humanise” the liver.
After the transplant, the pig liver showed signs of functioning, including producing bile, which helps break down fats in the digestive system, and porcine albumin, a blood protein.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Mr. Wu’s Pig Livers, San Francisco.
Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard had a heart valve transplant from a pig over 40 years ago. This is a more advanced use of pig parts, but it has been going on for a long time.
Human beings have a surprising degree of compatibility with swine, and this is not completely hidden, in terms of neurological and personality traits.
I have always suspected that humanity was the result of gene manipulation by some alien beings, of splicing in swine genes with chimpanzee chromosomes. In fact, this may have been the bridge between the intellectual attainment of the great apes and homo sapiens. Pigs are by far the most intelligent of domesticated animals, exceeding even dogs by a goodly margin.
I love that commercial, it still cracks me up. It has been used a lot during March Madness.
Well, there went my appetite for pork fried rice.
My stepfather had a bovine heart valve replacement. Kept him with is a few more precious years.
> soon we will have a Peking Homunculus
If we get Leela too, I’m good with that.
It was just a matter of time!
That was an hilarious commercial
Kramer knows all about the Pig Man!!!
I am sure Muslims would not be down with this.
They can sell the procedure to the Chinese as a built-in snack.
OK to use the pig’s liver but save the bacon or else.
I also read that a Woman from Alabama was on dialysis for ten years and was implanted with a pig kidney and it took, after two months they sent her home.
>> transplanted into a brain-dead patient
That’s the part that got my attention.
So it’s basically a medical experiment on a victim that didn’t — indeed, COULDN’T — consent to it.
I wonder if there was even anything wrong with the “patient”’s own liver.
I don’t this procedure will be adopted in the Arab world.
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