Gene-edited pig lung transplanted into a brain-dead patient for first time
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In a milestone for the newly resurgent field of xenotransplantation<\/a>, a 39-year-old brain-dead person in China has become the first human to receive a lung from a pig. With consent from the person\u2019s family, researchers took the organ from a CRISPR\u2019d pig, trimmed it, and stitched it into their chest, where it remained for nine days.<\/p>\n The procedure was intended to test whether pigs that have been gene-edited to make their organs less recognizable to the human immune system \u2014\u00a0and thus less prone to rejection \u2014 could one day be used to supply hospitals for transplants. In the past few years, surgeons in the U.S. have transplanted pig hearts<\/a> and kidneys into both living patients<\/a> and people who had been declared clinically dead because they lacked brain function. Last year, doctors in China became the first to attempt a similar procedure with a liver from a pig<\/a>. This is the first time anyone has tried it with a lung.\u00a0<\/p>\n