1w ago

Chinese Surgeons Perform First Pig-to-Human Liver Transplant

nytimes.com

3 comments

I feel like I'm being gaslit? Am I having false memories, or was work like this not underway decades ago already?
- Yes here is an article from 2015
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743919115003738
  Progress in genetically-engineered (GE) pig liver xenotransplantation increased graft and recipient survival from hours with unmodified pig livers to up to 9 days with normal to near-normal liver function
  I guess the news is that we went from days to months
There are few things the article didn't address:
What complications caused the scientists to remove the liver and whether live transplant had something to do with patient's death or it was all because of cancer.
Why can't the pig live be kept permanently if its fully functional?