CHEEN
International News: When it comes to saving someone's life, doctors come forward as God's messengers. With technology and their courage, doctors have given a new life to countless people. Now a case has come to light from China, in which doctors have taken the help of a pig to save a human life.Chinese scientists and doctors announced on Monday in a study published in Nature Medicine that for the first time a pig lung has been transplanted into a human.
Scientists at the National Clinical Research Institute in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou transplanted a pig lung into a brain-dead human. After the surgery, the lung continued to function properly for 9 days.
Transplanting organs from different species is called xenotransplantation and is being seen as a potential solution to the global organ-shortage crisis. There have been recent advances in xenotransplantation of hearts and kidneys from pigs to humans, but lungs pose special challenges due to their "anatomical and physiological complexity," according to the Guangzhou study.
Among other things, the direct contact of the lungs with outside air naturally increases the risk of infection. But a 22-month-old, 70-kilogram Chinese male named Bama Jiang remained alive and under observation for more than a week after a liver transplant from a pig into a 39-year-old male human patient.
The scientists' breakthrough technology could be scaled up with further research. The breakthrough highlights advances in genetic modifications and immunosuppressive strategies but also highlights key challenges that must be addressed for clinical translation.
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