Overview

• On May 15, 2024, surgeons in Guangzhou implanted a left lung from a genetically edited Bama Xiang pig into a brain-dead 39-year-old who retained his native right lung.
• The xenograft functioned for 216 hours without hyperacute rejection or detected infection, then developed severe edema at 24 hours and antibody-mediated injury on days three and six with partial recovery by day nine.
• The team used an intensive, multi-drug immunosuppression regimen that was adjusted after surgery, and the family requested termination of the experiment after nine days.
• Clonorgan Biotechnology provided the biosecure donor organ engineered with six edits, including three porcine genes silenced and three human genes added.
• Authors and outside experts describe the result as preliminary, highlighting the need for improved genetic design, organ preservation, infection control and safer immunosuppression to eventually ease the lung shortage.