Surgeons at University of Pennsylvania attached modified organ from pig to brain-dead human body
Surgeons externally attached a pig liver to a brain-dead human body and watched it successfully filter blood, a step toward eventually trying the technique in patients with liver failure.
The University of Pennsylvania announced the novel experiment on Thursday, a different spin on animal-to-human organ transplants. In this case, the pig liver was used outside the donated body, not inside – a way to create a “bridge” to support failing livers by doing the organ’s blood-cleansing work externally, much like dialysis for failing kidneys.
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