For the first time, a genetically modified pig lung was transplanted into a brain-dead man
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/25/health/first-pig-to-human-lung-transplant
For the first time, a genetically modified pig lung was transplanted into a brain-dead man
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/25/health/first-pig-to-human-lung-transplant
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> There has been some recent success transplanting pig kidneys and hearts into people, but this is believed to be the first attempt to transplant a pig lung into a human. Doctors hope this could someday be an options for people in need of organs.
> Authors from Guangzhou Medical University First Affiliated Hospital in China didn’t identify the patient in the study, but he’s described as a 39-year-old man who was declared brain-dead after a brain hemorrhage. Doctors transplanted a pig lung into his body after getting consent from the man’s family. The findings were published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.
> The patient received several medications to reduce the risk of infection and rejection. The lung itself had also received **six gene edits**, and the donor pig was kept in an extremely clean and strictly controlled area for its entire life. In the study, the researchers reported that they **didn’t see immediate signs of rejection after the transplant** but problems arose after just a day.
> “Although this study **demonstrates the feasibility** of pig-to-human lung xenotransplantation, substantial challenges relating to organ rejection and infection remain,” the researchers wrote in the new study. They concluded that more research is needed before the procedure could be done again repeated in a clinical trial.
> The world has a tremendous need for donated organs. In the US alone in 2023 the waiting list for all organ transplants was twice as long as the number completed. About **13 people in the United States die every day waiting for a transplant**. Pig valves have been transplanted into humans for the past 30 years; organs are trickier, but doctors have seen limited success with genetically modified pig hearts and pig kidneys. They’ve also experimented with a genetically modified pig liver but had less success, at least so far. The most success to date has been with a man in Massachusetts, Tim Andrews, **who is living with a genetically modified pig kidney that was transplanted at Massachusetts General Hospital in January.**
If the man was brain dead, why didn’t they transplant the pig brain instead?
Why did I think they were putting the lung in his skull?
What about the shape and fit into the body cavity?
Would it even function properly without ventilators forcefully breathing.