Russian Scientists Plan Genetically Modified Pig Line for Human Organ Transplants

Researchers at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University plan to develop their own line of genetically modified pigs for organ transplantation into humans, aiming to address the global shortage of donor organs. After reviewing global experience in xenotransplantation, the transplantation of organs between species, the scientists identified key genetic targets for creating donor animals with predictable, stable characteristics.

According to the director of the university's Institute of Regenerative Medicine, developing the pig line could take up to 10 years, given the complexity of restructuring the animals' immune systems and breeding several generations with stable traits, alongside clinical trials and adaptation of Russia's regulatory framework. The main obstacle remains the body's powerful immune rejection of foreign organs, which the researchers aim to overcome using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology to switch off pig genes for a foreign carbohydrate antigen and insert human genes that help control inflammation and blood clotting.

The scientists cited evidence that this approach can work: of nine xenotransplant operations performed worldwide, the most successful involved a pig kidney transplanted into American patient Timothy Andrews, who lived with it for more than nine months. The researchers noted that the shortage of donor organs is acute worldwide — more than 100,000 patients are waiting for transplants in the United States, according to the US Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, while around 20 people die each day in Europe without receiving one.

Pigs were identified as the optimal xenotransplant donors after earlier experiments using primates, which began in the 1960s, were abandoned due to infection risks; pig organs are similar to human organs in size and physiology, and pigs reproduce quickly enough to breed the required populations. Separately, in 2025, Sechenov University's Clinical Centre began operations to restore the eardrum using tissue equivalents grown from a patient's own cells, which it says is the world's first clinical use of such a biomedical cell product for eardrum regeneration.