Regulated Oxygenation of Rewarming Machine Perfusion for Porcine Donation After Cardiac Death Liver Transplantation.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Machine perfusion (MP) is particularly expected to preserve and resuscitate an organ obtained from extended criteria donors or donation after cardiac death to expand the donated organ pool for organ transplantation. This method requires to be investigated an optimal preservation condition. The aim of this study is investigation of the optimal oxygenation conditions under rewarming MP (RMP). METHODS: Porcine livers were perfused with an RMP system developed by our research group. All livers were procured under warm ischemia time of 60 minutes, and preserved in static cold storage for 2 hours, and perfused for 2 hours using the RMP. For group 1, the livers were supplied with oxygen constantly through perfusate. For group 2, the livers were supplied with oxygen increasingly with controlling flow rates and oxygen concentration. Effluent enzymes were obtained during perfusion preservation. RESULTS: The average levels of alanine aminotransferase were lower in group 2 than in group 1 during RMP, and also decreasing the hepatic artery pressures after 60 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: Regulated oxygenation of RMP has possibility to improve the graft preservation for liver transplantation.