Pig Liver Keeps Human Alive Week
A genetically modified pig liver was successfully used to keep a human patient alive for over a week while waiting for a donor organ. The pig liver filtered the patient's blood outside his body, offering a potential future solution to chronic organ shortages and drastically reducing transplant wait times.
The biotech firm eGenesis, in partnership with OrganOx, is behind the pioneering xenotransplantation technology. Their method uses a genetically modified pig liver outside the body, connected to the patient's circulatory system through a specialized device, to filter blood and provide temporary organ function. This "bridge" therapy is designed to give a patient's own liver time to recover or to keep them stable until a human donor organ becomes available. The pig livers used for this procedure undergo extensive genetic editing using CRISPR technology to make them more compatible with the human body. These modifications include removing pig genes that trigger immune rejection and adding human genes to help with coagulation and reduce inflammation. In some cases, as many as 69 genetic edits have been made to inactivate retroviruses present in the pig's DNA. This external liver support is a significant step, as the liver is a complex organ responsible for over 500 vital functions, including filtering toxins and producing essential proteins. Unlike kidney failure, which can be managed with mechanical dialysis, there is currently no long-term mechanical support for liver failure, making the organ shortage particularly critical. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved a Phase I clinical trial for this external pig liver perfusion system. The demand for transplant organs far outstrips the supply. In the United States, over 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list, with a new person being added approximately every 8 minutes. Sixteen people die each day while waiting for a transplant. Xenotransplantation research is accelerating to address this chronic shortage, with recent experimental transplants also involving pig hearts and kidneys.
