(NewsNation) — In a scientific first, surgeons have transplanted a lung from a pig to a human recipient and found that it functioned for more than a week.
First published in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers in China reported how they transplanted the left lung from a donor pig with six genetic modifications into a 39-year-old brain-dead male recipient.
For nine days, the lung did not trigger an infection or hyperacute rejection, which is a rapid, violent immune response by the recipient’s body.
These studies are often carried out on brain-dead recipients before living patients as a temporary, controlled model to test the functionality and immune response to genetically modified pig organs.
The work is the latest development in a technique called xenotransplantation, which is being touted by some scientists as a solution to the organ shortage crisis. According to the World Health Organization, 10% of the global need for organ transplants is being met.
In 2024, the United States alone had more than 103,000 people on a waitlist for organ transplants.
Over the years, surgeons have used xenotransplantation in three cases of kidney transplants from a genetically modified pig, two of which cases were from the U.S.
An Alabama woman’s transplant lasted a record 130 days before it was removed when her body began to reject the kidney.
The genetically modified pig lung was removed after nine days, when it began to show signs of damage. Experts stressed the research shows there is a long way to go before pig lungs can be used in humans.
Andrew Fisher, a professor of respiratory transplant medicine at Newcastle University, told The Guardian that while xenotransplantation for lungs holds promise, another promising path is to treat human donor lungs deemed unsuitable for transplantation so they can be used.
“If we get that right, that’s something can be implemented within months, and certainly in years could be making very big differences,” Fisher said.