Pig liver op gives hope to patients

PATIENTS with severe liver disease could be kept alive with transplants taken from pigs.

- By Hanna Geissler Health Editor

A team of surgeons successfully transferred into a brain-dead human an organ that had been genetically modified to prevent rejection.

The miniature pig's liver produced bile and albumin a vital protein in blood plasma for 10 days after the operation at Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University in north-west China.

It was connected alongside the patient's own liver with no signs of their immune system attacking it.

The experiment was terminated after 10 days at the request of the patient's family.

Obstacle

Researchers at another Chinese hospital last year reported they had transplanted a pig liver into a patient with liver cancer.