Pig Liver Successfully Transplanted into Human in China; Spain Prepares Clinical Trial

For the first time, a pig's liver has been transplanted into a living human. The procedure was performed by medics at the Fourth Military Medical University in China. They genetically modified a mini-pig and transplanted the liver tissue into a brain-dead person. The organ functioned normally for 10 days without immune system rejection, until the study's end at the family's request. Professor Lin Wang, the study author, called it "a great achievement" and the surgery "really successful." This auxiliary liver transplantation serves as "an ideal bridge therapy for people with liver failure," according to Wang, offering crucial data beyond animal experiments. The smaller size of the pig liver allows for addition without removing the diseased human organ. In Spain, the Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca de Murcia is preparing a clinical trial to transplant genetically modified pig livers from the University of Munich into three patients with acute liver failure. Rafael Matesanz, founder of the Organización Nacional de Trasplantes (ONT), noted the center's prior experience in pig-to-monkey liver transplants. ONT director Beatriz Domínguez-Gil highlighted the study's design and its "extraordinary aportación" to clinical development, confirming graft function, intact vessels, and absence of thrombotic phenomena or transplant rejection.