z-bio 2025-10-27 2978

　　Previously, the team of Professor Wei Hongjiang of Yunnan Agricultural University published a cover paper titled "Inactivation of porcine endogenous retrovirus in pigs using CRISPR-Cas9" in the top international academic journal "Science", announcing the successful production of the world's first batch of pigs with inactivated endogenous retrovirus activity. Recently, a breakthrough study jointly completed by the team of Professor Wei Hongjiang and the team of Dean Sun Beicheng of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University has attracted widespread attention in the global medical community. This research achieved the world's first orthotopic transplantation of a gene-edited pig liver into a living patient. The related results were published in the top international journal "Journal of Hepatology" (impact factor 33) in a paper titled "Genetically engineered pig-to-human liver xenotransplantation", marking a new era in the field of xenogeneic organ transplantation.

　　This landmark surgery was successfully performed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University on May 17, 2024. The recipient of the transplant was a 71-year-old patient with advanced liver cancer. The researchers used precision genetically modified pig livers as transplant donors and implanted them into the patients using auxiliary orthotopic transplantation. Postoperative follow-up showed that the patient recovered well, without hyperacute or acute immune rejection, and his vital signs were stable, which bought valuable time for subsequent treatment. Once this case was announced, it immediately aroused strong response from the international scientific community. The two authoritative journals "Nature" and "Science" conducted special reports with the titles of "First pig-to-human liver transplantation recipient ‘doing well'" and "Pioneering pig liver transplantation" respectively. Many top experts in the global transplantation field spoke highly of this. They include David Cooper, one of the founders of the field of xenotransplantation, Jay Fishman, a transplant infectious disease expert at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Burcin Ekser, a transplant surgeon at Indiana University School of Medicine. They all believe that this operation is not only a major breakthrough in technology, but also opens up a new way for mankind to deal with the organ shortage crisis.

　　Professor Heiner Wedemeyer, co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hepatology and from Hannover Medical School in Germany, pointed out in a commentary published at the same time: "The first human xenogeneic liver transplantation is an epoch-making event" and emphasized that "a new era of transplant hepatology has begun." He commented that this research "sets a new benchmark" and will become a key reference for future development of this field. On the day the paper was published, mainstream media around the world followed up with reports, setting off a wave of international public opinion. The New York Times of the United States conducted an in-depth report under the title "Chinese Surgeons Perform First Pig-to-Human Liver Transplant". Heidi Heidi, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and expert in transplant surgery Yeh said with emotion in the interview: "The research team showed extraordinary courage - previous preliminary experiments on non-human primates were unsuccessful, and many scientists were deterred by this. Not only did they take this step, they also maintained the pig liver in the human body for more than a month, and the patient's condition was stable. This is undoubtedly a milestone progress." In addition, US Cable TV News News Network (CNN), professional medical media "STAT", the British "Independent" and "New Scientist" weekly, as well as India's "Times of India", "Economic Times", Japan and other mainstream media have also widely spread this medical miracle with titles such as "First pig liver transplant allows patient to survive for 171 days" and "Xenotransplantation is gradually becoming routine".

　　Behind this breakthrough is the long-term accumulation of Professor Wei Hongjiang’s team in the research and development of xenotransplantation donor pigs. Over the years, the team has been committed to building a gene-edited pig model suitable for human transplantation, and finally successfully cultivated my country's first batch of 10 gene-edited donor pigs that are specific pathogen-free (SPF grade). These "super donor pigs" are produced by knocking out three key pig-derived antigen genes (GGTA1, CMAH and β4GalNT2), significantly reduces the risk of recognition and attack of xenogeneic organs by the human immune system; seven human genes are also introduced: hCD46, hCD55 and hCD59 are used to inhibit the activation of the human complement system and prevent cell destruction; hTBM, hEPCR and hCD39 help regulate cross-species coagulation dysfunction; and the expression of hCD47 can effectively inhibit the phagocytosis of macrophages and further improve the survival rate of transplanted organs. More importantly, this batch of donor pigs were cultivated in a strict isolation environment and underwent comprehensive screening of 47 pathogenic microorganisms. They are currently the most comprehensive xenotransplantation donor pigs with known pathogen detection in the world, which greatly reduces the risk of cross-species infection. This result was also published in "Protein & Cell" in August 2025 (impact factor 12.8), marking Yunnan Agricultural University becoming the third unit in the world to master the core technology of 10 gene-edited xenogeneic organ transplant donor pigs after the American companies Revivicor and eGenesis.