<h5>From which animal did the patient receive a liver transplant?</h5><p>A liver transplant is a surgical method that involves removing someone's damaged or injured liver. This damaged liver is replaced with a healthy liver from another person, known as the donor. If someone's liver stops functioning correctly, known as liver failure, a liver transplant can save their life.</p><p>Generally, the donor is another human being. But Chinese scientists have done something incredible. They have transplanted the liver of a pig into a brain-dead human patient. An organ transplant between different species has a high rejection rate.</p><p>So, the scientists did something remarkable to ensure the pig liver worked on the human patient.</p><h5>What did the scientists do?</h5><p>The scientists gene-edited the liver to delete numerous genes related to proteins that cause organ rejection. Imagine you have a magic pencil that allows you to remove or correct minor faults in your artwork. Gene editing works similarly, except for human or animal bodies.</p><p>Scientists can use this method to change small portions of human or animal genes to keep everything healthy. After the surgery, scientists saw that the new liver was functioning well in the patient and showed no signs of organ rejection 96 hours after surgery. This procedure was done at the Air Force Medical University in China.</p><p>Researchers in the United States have successfully transplanted gene-edited pig kidneys and hearts into brain-dead patients. However, it is more difficult to transplant livers because their structure and function are more complex.</p><p>To ensure the transplanted liver functions well, the patient's original organ remains in the body alongside the transplanted organ. So, this is said to be the world’s first gene-edited pig liver transplant in a human patient. Even though the patient remains brain-dead, the transplant is considered to be a fantastic breakthrough.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure> <iframe width="100%" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XPDb8tqgfjY" title="What is gene editing and how does it work? | The Royal Society" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><figcaption>A video on gene editing. Video by The Royal Society.</figcaption></figure></div><h5>Why is it considered to be a fantastic breakthrough?</h5><p>Every year, liver disease kills many people worldwide. Unfortunately, many of them die since there aren’t enough organs for transplantation. Human liver transplants can save lives, but there aren't enough donors available.</p><p>The recent successful liver transplant can have a big impact. Scientists can study it and develop ways to transplant pig liver into humans easily. This can ease the scarcity of organs available for transplantation and help save people suffering from liver diseases.</p><p>However, other people believe using animal organs in humans has certain obstacles. Firstly, many animals must be bred to produce the needed organs, such as the heart, kidney, and liver. Will it be right to kill these animals for the benefit of humans? Second, what if a disease is transferred to people from animals?</p><p>So, more research is needed before this method is used worldwide.</p>

The transplant was done on a Chinese patient.

Patient Receives Liver Transplant From an Animal

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Patient Receives Liver Transplant From an Animal

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