The porcine to human clinical assisted xenotransplantation is a joint result of basic and clinical cooperation between the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University and Yunnan Agricultural University.

It is also inseparable from the innovative guidance of Academician Dou Kefeng's team of Air Force Military Medical University and Academician Dong Jiahong's team of Tsinghua University in carrying out porcine to human brain death recipient xenotransplantation research. It is the collective wisdom of Chinese scientists in the field of xenotransplantation research.

Xenotransplantation, which involves transplanting organs from animals into humans, is currently in the experimental phase and aims to address the shortage of human organ donations. Donor animals need to undergo multiple gene edits to avoid being rejected by the body's immune system, as well as to prevent organs from growing too large or causing blood clots.

Gene editing of pig cells is a relatively mature technology, and the reproduction capacity of pigs is strong, easy to scale breeding, which makes pigs the best choice for xenotransplantation donors under the current technical conditions.

The world's first human heart transplant from a pig has been performed in the United States. In 2022, the University of Maryland Medical Center in the United States performed the world's first successful pig heart allogeneic transplant,

which used a pig heart from a gene-edited pig. The patient was pronounced dead two months after the operation, or died of porcine viral pathogens and rejection of the transplanted organ.

The team also completed the world's second genetically modified pig heart transplant in 2023, with the patient surviving nearly six weeks after the operation. Similar to the first case, the patient developed rejection when there was initially no clear evidence of rejection.

On March 16, 2024, the Transplant Center of Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States completed the world's first living transplant of genetically modified pig kidneys. Unfortunately, the patient died two months after the operation.

According to CCTV news, Massachusetts General Hospital released news on March 21, medical experts of the hospital have successfully carried out a special transplant operation for an American man with end-stage renal disease, transplanting a gene edited pig kidney into his body. This is the first of its kind in the world. The man is recovering well from the operation.

According to reports, the hospital transplant center experts carried out the four-hour operation on the 16th. The patient who received the pig kidney was 62-year-old Richard Sleiman. Slayman had suffered from type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure for years and had been on dialysis for long periods.

He underwent a kidney transplant at the hospital in December 2018, but several years later his transplanted kidney showed signs of failure and had to resume dialysis in May 2023.

Slayman later developed complications related to vascular access, and doctors recommended a pig kidney transplant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the transplant based on "compassionate use" rules.

The hospital said the pig kidneys used in the transplant had undergone 69 genome edits, including "knocking out" genes that would cause rejection in humans and adding some human genes to improve the compatibility of animal organs with humans.

In addition, the team inactivated the retrovirus gene in the pigs to prevent the virus from affecting the recipients. Medical experts at the hospital said they hope the transplant program will bring hope to millions of kidney failure patients around the world.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for an organ transplant, and an average of 17 people die every day while waiting for an organ.

In response to the shortage of human organ supply, researchers have long been working on xenotransplantation. Pig is regarded as one of the best donor animals for xenotransplantation because of its organ structure,

physiological function and size similar to human organs, but there are still many difficulties and risks for xenotransplantation to be overcome through scientific research and clinical trials.| Sun exposure may keep you from gaining weight

According to a new study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology on the 22nd, researchers at Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea found that sun exposure may have the benefit of making people "eat without gaining weight."

Their research shows that UV exposure can increase appetite while also preventing weight gain. These findings may offer new hope for the prevention and treatment of obesity and metabolic disorders.

Sunlight contains ultraviolet rays, which can cause harmful effects such as sunburn, photoaging, and skin cancer, but it is also linked to vitamin D synthesis.

Previously, the team found that ultraviolet light on the skin does not directly reach the subcutaneous fat, but can regulate the metabolism of subcutaneous fat. New research shows that UV exposure limits weight gain in obese mice.

Leptin is a natural anorexic secreted by the body's fat tissue. The researchers found that when continuously exposed to UV radiation, mice fed both a normal diet and a high-fat diet showed decreased leptin and increased appetite, while their weight did not increase.