Scientists successfully transplant bioengineered pig lungs

TEXAS — A study published in Science Translational Medicine describes how scientists have successfully transplanted a bioengineered lung into a pig.

Scientists created lung scaffolds by taking a lung from another pig and bathing it in a solution of sugar and protein.

This leaves a skeleton of the lungs, stripping it of all the blood and living cells.

The lung scaffolds are then treated with growth factor-filled hydrogels and nanoparticles which would prepare it to receive cells from the pig where the lung was going to be transplanted to.

The cells were left in the lung scaffolds for 30 days where it prepared a brand new lung.

The researchers noticed the pigs which received the bioengineered lung managed to grow blood vessel networks by two weeks.

Researchers involved in the project said the same process could be used for human transplants five to ten years from now.

This successful operation means organ donor shortages could become a thing of the past.