What if gene-edited pig livers could hold the key to saving thousands of human lives each year? A groundbreaking clinical trial aims to find out. The FDA has given the green light to the trial, which will test gene-edited pig livers as a treatment for sudden liver failure. The AP reports US researchers will use these livers, which won't be transplanted but rather attached externally to the body of trial patients, to filter human blood for a few days. The hope is that by giving the human liver a break, it will have a chance to regenerate; it's the only organ with the ability to do so.
Each year, 35,000 Americans experience liver failure, and they have no mechanical options available to replace the functions of the organs ahead of a possible transplant, as in the case of patients experiencing heart or kidney failure. As such, the death rate can spike as high as 50%. The trial will involve up to 20 ICU patients who can't qualify for a liver transplant and will use a device made by OrganOx to temporarily pump their blood through a pig liver. The trial was announced Tuesday by eGenesis, which developed the liver, and OrganOx, which created the blood-circulating device.
Penn Medicine reported on a December trial involving a single brain-dead donor in which a porcine liver was connected to the body via blood-carrying tubes. Over a three-day period, the pig liver "showed no signs of liver inflammation ... while the donor's body remained physiologically very stable." (The news comes on the heels of the first successful transplant of a genetically modified pig liver into a human; it functioned for 10 days.) (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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