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First pig liver transplanted into a person lasts for 10 days

Pig organs could provide temporary detox for people whose livers need time to recover or who are awaiting human donors.
  1. Smriti Mallapaty
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In a milestone for the transplantation of animal organs into people, a 50-year-old clinically dead man in China has become the first person to receive a liver from a pig. With consent from the man’s family, researchers stitched the organ, from a genetically engineered miniature pig, to the man’s blood vessels, where it remained for ten days. It has been surgically removed today, says Dou Kefeng, one of the surgeons who led the transplant at Xijing Hospital of the Air Force Medical University in Xi’an. “Our study has just been terminated, and the colour and texture of the pig liver [transplant] are generally normal.”

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Nature 627, 710-711 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00853-8

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 21 March 2024: An earlier version of this story included a picture of a human liver instead of a pig liver. The picture has been replaced.

  • Correction 24 March 2024: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the porcine molecules that provoke attack from human immune cells.

  • Correction 25 March 2024: An earlier version of this story erroneously used the word ‘donor’ instead of ‘recipient’ in several places. This has now been fixed.

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