Pigs could help people who need liver transplants

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Scientists connected a brain-dead patient to a pig liver for the first time By Alice Park Senior Health Correspondent In my job covering health and science, I have the opportunity to learn about some pretty remarkable feats. But the latest advance in transplant science ranks among the most striking that I’ve come across in a long time. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, along with teams from biotech companies eGenesis and OrganOx, announced that they successfully connected a brain-dead patient to a pig liver for the first time. The experiment is an initial step toward finding better solutions for the 10,000 people waiting for liver transplants in the U.S. Yes, it involved one patient. But what makes it so compelling is the combination of cutting-edge scientific advances involved. The pig donors were clones (produced using the same process that made Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal), from cells that had been edited with CRISPR to make them less pig-like and more human to avoid the problem of rejection. CRISPR made it possible to introduce 69 edits—an unthinkable number of changes using previous gene-modifying techniques. The patient’s liver remained in place, so the study wasn’t designed to test whether the pig liver could substitute for the patient’s, but it did prove that the liver could remain healthy and viable and potentially perform some liver functions for up to three days. Next, the research team plans to study genetically modified pig livers in brain-dead patients whose livers have been removed. And if those studies continue to show promise, tests in people with liver failure could start by the end of the year. READ MORE HERE Share This Story

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