by Chinese scientists carried out the first lung transplant from pig too human, with the organ remaining functional for over a week after the operation.
The xenotransplantation, as the process of transplantation of organs is called from one way into another, has observed milestone developments in recent years, whereby doctors showing the feasibility of the transplantation of kidneys, hearts and liver of pigs to humans.
Now researchers at Guangzhou Medical University have carried out a lung transplantation with cross species.
“Here we report on a case of pig to human lung xenotransplantation, in which a lung from a pig edited with six gone was transplanted into a 39-year-old brain-working human recipient after a brain hemorrhage,” wrote the researchers in a study published in the magazine Natural medicine.
Before taking his lungs, the scientists worked on some of the genes of the pig to remove proteins that the human immune system could activate after transplantation.
In experimental procedures, the Chinese scientists transplanted the left lungs of the gene edited pig into a human recipient, which was declared by four clinical reviews for brain.
They injected the recipient with medication to suppress the immune system and evaluated how the lungs worked and the human immune system reacted.
The lungs were not immediately rejected by the immune system and remained functional for nine days.
A genetically modified pig looks out of warming in his pen in the Revivicor Research Farm in Virginia, USA (AFP via Getty).
“The pulmonary graft maintained in the course of the 216 hours of the surveillance periods without any signs of a hyperacute repulsion or infection,” said the study.
However, the researchers observed signs of lung damage 24 hours after the transplantation and signs of an antibody-mediated rejection on days 3 and 6, which led to the end of their experiment on the ninth day.
“The antibody-mediated rejection seemed to contribute 3 and 6 to Xeno Transplant damage on postoperative days, whereby they recovered partly until the 9th day,” they stated.
The scientists hope that implanted swine lungs can maintain the long-term function with improvements in the genetic modifications of donors and the use of better medication to suppress the human immune system.
“Although this study shows the feasibility of a Schweiner-Human-Lunge-Xenotransplantation, considerable challenges in relation to the rejection of organ and further preclinical studies remain necessary before the clinical translation of this procedure is littered,” they wrote.
