Pig Lung Transplanted Into a Human In Major Scientific First (sciencealert.com) 44
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ScienceAlert: A genetically modified pig lung transplanted into a brain-dead human patient functioned for nine days in a new achievement that reveals both the promise and significant challenges of xenotransplantation. Over the course of the experiment, the patient showed increasing signs of organ rejection before scientists at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University in China terminated the experiment, allowing the recipient to pass away. It's the first time a pig lung has been transplanted into a human patient, demonstrating a significant step forward, and giving scientists new problems to solve as they develop this emerging medical technique further. [...]
The goal of the experiment was not to achieve a successful transplantation on the first try -- that would have been pretty incredible, but not a realistic expectation. Rather, the researchers wanted to observe how the patient's immune system responded to the transplanted organ. The patient was a 39-year-old man who was declared brain-dead by four separate clinical assessments after undergoing a brain hemorrhage. His family provided written informed consent for the experiment. The donor pig is what is known as a six-gene-edited pig, a Bama miniature pig with six CRISPR gene edits, housed in an isolated facility with rigorous disinfection protocols. These edits are all focused on minimizing the immune and inflammatory responses of the patient.
In a careful surgical procedure, the pig's left lung was placed into the patient's chest cavity, and connected to their airways, arteries, and veins. The paper does not explain the fate of the pig, but donor pigs do not typically survive the removal of a major organ. The patient was also treated with a number of immunosuppressants that the researchers adjusted according to changes observed in the patient's body over time. Initially, all seemed well, with none of the immediate signs of hyperacute rejection in the critical few hours following the procedure. However, by 24 hours after the transplant had taken place, severe swelling (edema) was observed, possibly as a result of blood flow being restored to the area of the transplant. Antibody-mediated rejection damaged the tissue further on days three and six of the experiment. The result of the damage was primary graft dysfunction, a type of severe lung injury occurring within 72 hours of a transplant, and the leading cause of death in lung transplant patients. Some recovery was taking place by day nine, but the experiment had run its course. The research has been published in Nature Medicine.
The goal of the experiment was not to achieve a successful transplantation on the first try -- that would have been pretty incredible, but not a realistic expectation. Rather, the researchers wanted to observe how the patient's immune system responded to the transplanted organ. The patient was a 39-year-old man who was declared brain-dead by four separate clinical assessments after undergoing a brain hemorrhage. His family provided written informed consent for the experiment. The donor pig is what is known as a six-gene-edited pig, a Bama miniature pig with six CRISPR gene edits, housed in an isolated facility with rigorous disinfection protocols. These edits are all focused on minimizing the immune and inflammatory responses of the patient.
In a careful surgical procedure, the pig's left lung was placed into the patient's chest cavity, and connected to their airways, arteries, and veins. The paper does not explain the fate of the pig, but donor pigs do not typically survive the removal of a major organ. The patient was also treated with a number of immunosuppressants that the researchers adjusted according to changes observed in the patient's body over time. Initially, all seemed well, with none of the immediate signs of hyperacute rejection in the critical few hours following the procedure. However, by 24 hours after the transplant had taken place, severe swelling (edema) was observed, possibly as a result of blood flow being restored to the area of the transplant. Antibody-mediated rejection damaged the tissue further on days three and six of the experiment. The result of the damage was primary graft dysfunction, a type of severe lung injury occurring within 72 hours of a transplant, and the leading cause of death in lung transplant patients. Some recovery was taking place by day nine, but the experiment had run its course. The research has been published in Nature Medicine.
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please bring back the woke, my children are starving
I for one feel much safer knowing that my city is being guarded from vandals who might attempt to repaint a crosswalk. [reddit.com]
Sorry that your kids might have to eat ramen for every meal, but sacrifices have to be made so that they can grow up in a world where crosswalks are all black and white, just as the good Lord intended. Assuming that they survive all that excess sodium. But hey, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, amiright?
Re: A political dissident? (Score:2)
What does Mongolian count as?
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Somebody needs a brain transplant.
(It's you, by the way. One from a pig - or really any animal - would be an improvement.)
Re: A political dissident? (Score:1)
Yes, please bring back the old times where you could just sell Jews in the open market for their intrinsic value.
Or isn't that what you meant? Because I'm confused about what intrinsic value any Jew has that's so different from non-Jews. The last group to think that they had "intrinsic value" first extorted them, then raped them and worked them to death, and finally they extracted their gold teeth.
And since the people complaining about woke are usually on the side of the brown shirt/black boots brigade, cl
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Re: A political dissident? (Score:2)
You know nothing of the sort.
I was wondering what sort of anti-China BS comments would appear, but the very 1st comment? You guys are sick.
China is still way behind the USA.. (Score:4, Informative)
We transplanted a rat's brain into a human and that dude became president.
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We transplanted a rat's brain into a human and that dude became president.
Now don't go making stuff up. Considering the state of Congress, someone's been installing rat brains in our politicians for a long time.
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It's a 757, and doesn't appear to have flown much if at all since its emergency landing for unlisted "mechanical issues" in 2023. It's so old (1991) that a decade ago it was parked for 3 years while they looked for a replacement engine. His pilots are so incompetent that they clipped a parked jet while taxiing last year.
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We transplanted a rat's brain into a human and that dude became president
We also transplanted a worm into the brain of a former heroin addict and current fascist's butthole addict, and he is now in charge of health.
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We transplanted a rat's brain into a human and that dude became president
We also transplanted a worm into the brain of a former heroin addict and current fascist's butthole addict, and he is now in charge of health.
that poor worm had no idea what it was in for. I'll bet marinating in that stew of drugs was rough on the poor little bugger.
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And to think I probably used to sound like you guys twenty years ago.
I only hope you two have young age as an excuse, too.
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And to think I probably used to sound like you guys twenty years ago.
When exactly did you become a simp? Why are you proud of that?
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We transplanted a rat's brain into a human and that dude became president.
Having known a few rats, this is either a blatant lie, or the rat brain suffered some form of degradation during or after the transplant. They tend to be way smarter than any politician. They also tend to have better social graces.
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Well, let's hope he fed the hungry.
The first fate that popped into my mind was:
#23 - Sichuan Pork with Egg Roll ***
Diabetes (Score:2)
Re: Diabetes (Score:2)
There are enough scientists in China to go around. Iirc, they're doing quite well on diabetes too, but I've not kept up...
This is about an organ transplant operation (Score:3)
So why tf are most comments about Trump? What on Earth does this have to do with US politics? The transplant didn't even take place in US but in China.
On topic, this is promising, but for a patient, 'the organ was rejected after X days' is just as bad as 'the organ was immediately rejected', the end result is you still die.
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The other answer is that the longer it takes for the recipient to reject the organ the closer they are to being able to keep it indefinitely. Science and medicine advance gradually in most cases.
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The story includes pigs and brain death. It's only natural to be reminded of Trump.
lungs are more tricky than heart/kidney (Score:5, Interesting)
lungs transplant is tougher than hart or kidneys. The problem is not just the mechanics of breathing, it is immunology. Human antibodies target sugars and proteins on pig lung cells, triggering massive immune rejection and clotting in the capillaries. And unlike the heart, which mostly functions as a mechanical pump, the lung is an immune hotspot, constantly exposed to pathogens. Pig lungs also express antibodies and immune molecules that differ from humans, making them particularly prone to attack when connected to human blood. There is also a risk of pig specific viruses.
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No one has the doe to transplant a hart, apparently.
How did I know? (Score:2)
I read just the title of the summary and, honest-to-god, the first word that popped into my head was "China".
I'm half-expecting to be modded 'Flamebait' for this, but that was truly not my intention.
Re: How did I know? (Score:2)
Indeed, China are making a lot of advances lately, so "China" should come to mind.
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Guess who makes the world's fastest EV? https://www.topgear.com/car-ne... [topgear.com]
Also makes the fastest EV to lap the Nurburgring https://www.topgear.com/car-ne... [topgear.com]
China sees the US fumbling and quietly and quietly takes the lead.