China Achieves a New Medical Breakthrough

China’s medical community has made an unprecedented advance in organ transplantation after a team of doctors successfully performed the first lung transplant using a genetically modified pig organ on a brain-dead human patient.

The surgery took place in Guangzhou on a 39-year-old man, following ethical approval from his family. Details of the procedure were published in the August 25 issue of Nature Medicine.

The operation relied on a pig lung genetically engineered with CRISPR gene-editing technology. The company Clonorgan Biotechnology inactivated three pig genes that trigger organ rejection and inserted three human genes to improve compatibility.

Over a period of nine days, the transplanted lung functioned effectively, showing only mild signs of immune rejection within the first 24 hours. No severe or acute immune responses were observed during the trial, which concluded upon the decision of the donor’s family.

Despite this remarkable success, doctors note that lung transplantation remains one of the most complex procedures due to the organ’s fragile structure, constant exposure to environmental factors and microbes, and the presence of active immune cells that heighten the risk of rejection.

The experiment is part of a growing wave of research into animal-to-human organ transplants, known as xenotransplantation. In the United States, similar trials have been conducted with pig hearts and kidneys, while China had previously reported a successful pig liver transplant.

Although most of these experiments have been carried out on brain-dead patients, they mark a crucial step toward future procedures on living patients, in an effort to address the severe global shortage of human donor organs.

While still in its early stages, researchers emphasize that this achievement represents a promising milestone toward innovative solutions for organ transplantation, potentially offering millions of patients real chances of survival amid the scarcity of human donors.