A Review on Pig-to-Human Organ Transplantation / 中国生物化学与分子生物学报

ABSTRACT

Xenotransplantation holds the promise of being used to address the imbalance between organ supply and demand for clinical transplantation. Pigs have natural features that make them more suitable donors for transplant organs than non-human primates. A series of biological barriers that arise after pig organ transplantation have been overcome by genetic engineering and pharmacological suppression. Mean- while, the gradual maturity of the genetic engineering technology has been significantly optimized for suit- able pigs for xenotransplantation, and promoted the development of pig organ transplantation research. Although it will take time for pig organ xenotransplantation to enter the clinical trial stage, recent studies conducted in a few brain-dead or critically ill patients have exhibited the great potential of porcine xeno- transplantation in solving the imbalance between supply and demand of organs for clinical transplantation.