Hangzhou, Provincial People's Hospital.
In the operating room, an unprecedented operation was being carried out in an orderly manner.
On the operating table in the middle lay a brain-dead patient.
Next to it were three other operating tables, with three pink and white piglets lying on them.
The surgeon will remove the brain-dead patient's heart, kidneys, liver, and corneas one by one in accordance with the organ donation agreement, send them to the next door ward, and transplant them to waiting patients.
After the organs are removed from the patient, another surgeon will remove the corresponding live organs from the pig and transplant them into the patient to fill the vacancy left after the original organs were removed.
Such a complex large-scale operation cannot be carried out smoothly without the close cooperation of all departments.
The hospital attaches great importance to this, and experts from various departments consulted many times before coming up with the most reliable surgical plan.
According to the plan, the patient's cornea is first removed.
Then there are the bilateral native kidneys, and then the transplanted organs in the pig are transplanted.
The second step is the heart, and finally the liver transplant.
Since there has been overseas experience in transplanting pig hearts, livers, and kidneys into brain-dead patients, theoretically, it should be feasible.
As for the liver, it is a bit more complicated, so it is placed in the last step.
After each organ transplant, it takes several hours to observe the patient's immediate rejection reaction, so the operation time will become very long.
The operation took more than 24 hours, and departments such as extracardiac surgery, extrarenal surgery, extrahepatic surgery, facial facial surgery, and anesthesia took turns to complete the entire operation.
Because the operation was too complex and involved many people, most doctors could only gather outside the operating room to watch.
At this time, the lounge was full of people, as lively as a vegetable market.
Everyone was whispering and discussing.
Everyone watched the surgery pictures on the big screen attentively, speculated on the surgical procedures and results, and expressed their own opinions.
"Is this a kidney transplanted from a pig? It really looks like a human kidney. Except it's a little smaller, it's exactly the same."
"Nonsense, this is a human kidney."
"I read the paper in "Life". The glomeruli and renal tubules are both human cells, but the blood vessels are still from pigs. However, they have been genetically modified to remove the immune rejection gene, but I still have some concerns about whether it will cause rejection. reaction."
"Look, the blood vessel clamp has been removed, and the right kidney turned red after reperfusion."
"I'll go and produce urine in 30 minutes."
"But the urine output from the left kidney is obviously a little sparse and slow."
"There may be something abnormal in the left kidney, but it's a pity that it can't be biopsied immediately."
"The renal parenchyma is too fragile, and biopsy is very harmful to the transplanted kidney. It is better to judge based on the biochemical test results as much as possible."
"Huh, one hour has passed, and there is no hyperacute rejection reaction. It seems that this stage has been overcome."
"Next is the heart. The heart was taken out and put into the cardiac perfusion box."
"Okay, the heart vessels are connected and the blood supply is restored. Damn it, my heart is beating!" A doctor jumped up from his chair with excitement.
"The electrocardiogram has recovered, ah ah ah, I can't survive. This is simply making history!" Another doctor started dancing and talking nonsense.
Others turned a blind eye to this, because they themselves clenched their fists and waved them randomly in the air, looking as if they were too excited to control themselves.
After a while, everyone slowly regained their composure and sat down again.
"Oops, why is there an emergency surgery all of a sudden?" Someone's expression changed drastically and he left in a hurry.
"How far has the operation progressed?" Another person walked in quickly. Before he could sit down, he asked eagerly about the latest progress.
"The transplanted heart has passed the hyperacute immune rejection period. It may be because the heart has many muscles, a high content of human cells, and the porcine endothelial cells in the blood vessels have been humanized, so it is very safe."
Someone patiently explained: "The kidney transplant was successful before. I can urinate half an hour after the blood supply is restored. However, the urine output of the left kidney is small, and there may be some problems."
The visitor immediately felt regretful: "Hey, if I had known earlier, I should have taken leave to come and have a look. It would be such a pity to miss such a wonderful operation."
"It's okay. There are videos. You can go home and watch it slowly at night. You can't help but receive patients."
"It's better for you to do surgery. Except for emergency surgeries, other surgeries can be rescheduled. You can sit here peacefully and watch the surgeries today."
"It's necessary. Such an important surgical transplant operation is rare in ten years."
"Haha, I guess it won't be rare in the next ten years. I guess there will be quite a few every year."
"Shh, stop talking, the liver transplant has begun."
"The function of the liver is much more complicated than that of the heart and kidneys, and I don't know whether the transplant can be successful."
"The heart is actually an organ with a very simple function. It is mainly responsible for pumping blood and then synthesizing some proteins. The kidneys are also very simple. They are responsible for filtering the blood and also synthesizing some proteins. Just because the heart and kidneys can be successfully transplanted does not mean that the liver can also be transplanted."
"The liver is too complex. It has to synthesize more than 2,500 proteins, all of which are necessary to maintain life. I feel that the success rate will not be very high."
"Judging from the data on monkeys, the survival time of kidney transplantation is generally more than 9 months, and the survival time of heart transplantation is more than 6 months, but the survival time of liver transplantation is not more than 25 days. I don't know if it will break the record."
"You are overthinking. This time we are using brain-dead patients. The survival period is only 7 days at most. Two days have passed and there are less than 5 days left."
"The liver is an extremely complex world that involves a large number of life activities. If these mysteries can be solved, it will also be of great help to the treatment of the liver."
"Have you forgotten that the liver can regenerate? In fact, the goal of liver transplantation has never been permanent transplantation, but bridge transplantation. As long as it lasts three days, it is considered a success."
"Yes, if the patient's liver is severely damaged, he will die within 24 to 48 hours. It will take at least several days to find a suitable human liver. If the transplanted liver can play the role of a fire captain, filling this time gap, That was also a huge success.”
"Currently, the industry only has artificial hearts and artificial kidneys, but no artificial livers. Patients with severe liver failure lose 10% of their hope of survival after one hour. Very few can survive. As long as we can extend the survival time, we can find the right one." human liver, that’s enough.”
"There is great hope. The transplanted livers this time are all human cells. Compared with previous xenogeneic livers, they are physiologically closest to the original human liver, and the liver function defects should not be that high."
"If you think about it better, at least the transplanted liver will not carry viruses such as hepatitis A and hepatitis B."
****
Kunming City, Sanqing Headquarters.
"The operation was successful?"
"Okay, okay!" Wei Kang stood up from his chair with excitement and said three good words in a row.
Huang Qin on the other end of the phone tried his best to maintain calm and reported in detail the follow-up progress of the operation.
"Due to the poor transplant environment of the brain-dead recipients and the subsequent sharp deterioration of their physical condition, the experiment was interrupted three days after the operation was completed."
"While providing a suitable model for assessing the function of each transplanted organ, it is detrimental to graft survival."
"After the transplanted organ was transplanted into the body, a 3-day hyperacute immune rejection period passed."
"Various data show that after transplantation, the right kidney urinates well, creatinine can be excreted in the urine, the blood creatinine value drops, the heart rate is low, but it is within the normal range, and the liver can excrete toxins normally."
"Overall, the heart, kidneys and liver can all function normally. Only the left kidney has a small part of coagulation dysfunction and a blood loss reaction."
"Coagulation dysfunction may be a problem with a small number of pig blood vessels, or it may be a problem with the patient's body. Follow-up research is needed. Overall, the impact is not significant."
"Because acute and chronic rejection can occur over days or even months after transplantation, brain-dead patient transplant models may not be suitable for observing late-stage rejection."
"In other words, although hyperacute rejection did not occur, rejection was likely to occur at a later stage."
After listening to these contents, Wei Kang's excitement slowly subsided and he regained his usual calmness.
"Although there are still various shortcomings, it is also a landmark clinical study."
He pondered and said: "The long-term rejection of the heart and kidneys is still unknown. This needs to continue to be observed to provide more data."
"But as for the liver, if it can survive in the patient's body for three days without any harm, the initial goal has been achieved."
"The transplanted liver can be used as a bridge transplant and enter the clinical research stage."
"For those patients with severe liver failure, three days is enough for them to survive the most dangerous period and save their lives."
"To take a step back, even if it is used as an in vitro artificial biological liver, it can save many patients."
"That's right, President Wei." Huang Qin agreed: "Next, it would be best to conduct a few more experiments on brain-dead patients to obtain more sufficient human data before conducting subsequent research."
"If there is only one clinical case at present, I'm afraid it's not convincing enough."
Wei Kang nodded: "You are right. Have you met the patient's family? What is her feedback?"
Huang Qin was full of praise and said: "That aunt was so grateful that she was so satisfied with Sanqing. She is such a genius that she could come up with such a good idea."
"After the operation, I stayed in the ward for several days. The doctor only performed a biopsy of the organs. After the patient's vital signs disappeared, he was taken to the morgue. All the transplanted organs were kept inside and were not taken out."
"This can solve the family's concerns and satisfy both parties. It seems feasible."
"There are not many family members who think this way. At present, there is only that aunt."
Wei Kang smiled slightly and said: "Don't worry about this. As long as you publicize Auntie's success story on the Internet, many people should be interested and come to your door one after another."
"China's population base is here. Although there are few brain-dead people who are willing to donate organs, it is not impossible. It was just like finding a needle in a haystack to find them one by one. It was very difficult in the past, but it is much easier to let them come to the door on their own initiative."
"Even if there are too few such people and cannot be found at the moment, with the example of aunt, it will be greatly reduced for us to persuade family members of brain-dead patients to donate organs."
"I didn't post this on the Internet before because I was still a little worried about the surgery. Since the surgery was successful, I can naturally publicize it."
Huang Qin said happily: "That's great. I hope we can come to a few more and complete the preclinical research as soon as possible."
“With just a few more cases of liver transplantation in brain-dead patients, I can apply for a phase 1 clinical trial of acute transplantation for severe liver failure.
"Mr. Wei, your influence is so great. As long as you raise your voice online, I don't have to go back to the company. I can just wait and see in the hospital."
Wei Kang couldn't help but laughed and said: "It can't be so fast. Don't wait stupidly. Wait for the hospital to notify you."
After hanging up the phone, he opened Langbo and started typing.
"I am very happy today and want to share some good news with everyone."
"Just a few days ago, a mother who had just experienced the pain of losing her son came to our door. In order to fulfill her son's last wish, she had to donate the organs of her brain-dead son. However, under the influence of traditional concepts, she had no choice but to This move is deeply disturbing.”
"While she was hesitating, she saw the discussion about brain death on the Internet, and she suddenly thought of a solution that had the best of both worlds."
"This method can not only fulfill my son's wish to donate organs and save other terminally ill patients, but also keep my son's body intact."
"With her genius idea, her brain-dead son participated in Sanqing's preclinical research experiments. After removing the organs from his body for donation, he transplanted Sanqing's implanted organs into his body."
"In other words, he is not only an organ donor, but also an organ transplant recipient."
"The operation was successful. The transplanted organ obtained from the pig survived the 3-day hyperacute rejection period in the patient, and all functions were normal."
"This tragic brain-dead patient passed away within a week, bringing a successful conclusion to the experiment."
"This case will help break through some of the barriers in the field and pave the way for future research."
"I would like to express my sincere gratitude. I believe that as research further deepens, transplanted organs may enter clinical practice and may become a routine phenomenon in the near future."
"If you have interested family members, you are welcome to sign up to participate in the clinical trial. Thank you again!"
As soon as this long article was published, it immediately attracted a large number of fans and caused a sensation.
"I'll go. Auntie has such a fantastic idea. Can you think of all this?"
"This is very reasonable. Several organs were donated and several organs were transplanted. Once in and out, the patient lost nothing, but it perfectly solved the collision between tradition and technology."
"Auntie is a kind-hearted person with countless merits. She not only saved other patients, but also promoted the development of science and technology."
"It can only be said that it reflects the wisdom of the working people."
"Sure enough, scientific and technological means can solve any moral paradox. If it cannot, it only means that it is not advanced enough."
"After all, Sanqing can recreate human organs. If it is transplanted with pig organs, do you think Auntie can still agree?"
"That's definitely not possible. It feels a bit insulting to transplant pig organs from donors."
"Abroad, only pig organs can be transplanted, but Wai Guoren doesn't care."
"Am I the only one who noticed that Sanqing's experiment was very successful this time? Does it mean that the next human clinical trials are coming soon."
"As long as you dare to sign up, it will definitely be fast."
"Why don't you dare to sign up? Those who have been waiting for more than ten years for an organ might as well take a gamble. If they win, they will survive. If they lose, it will be nothing more. How much worse can they be? .”
"That's right, but at present, it is still a bit far away from human clinical trials. I hope to see this day come soon."
While netizens were talking about it, some people could no longer sit still.
After they received the news of the successful experiment on brain-dead patients, they couldn't stand the slow progress of clinical trials.
(End of chapter)
