Risk factors for heart transplant survival with greater than 5 h of donor heart ischemic time.

OBJECTIVE: Implantation of donor hearts with prolonged ischemic times is associated with worse survival. We sought to identify risk factors that modulate the effects of prolonged preservation. METHODS: Retrospective review of the United Network for Organ Sharing database (2000-2018) to identify transplants with >5 (n = 1526) or ≤5 h (n = 35,733) of donor heart preservation. In transplanted hearts preserved for >5 h, Cox-proportional hazards identify modifiers for survival. RESULTS: Compared to ≤5 h, transplanted patients with >5 h of preservation spent less time in status 1B (76 ± 160 vs. 85 ± 173 days, p = .027), more commonly had ischemic cardiomyopathy (42.3% vs. 38.3%, p = .002), and less commonly received a blood type O heart (45.4% vs. 50.8%, p < .001). Longer heart preservation time was associated with a higher incidence of postoperative stroke (4.5% vs. 2.5%, p < .001), and dialysis (16.4% vs. 10.6%, p < .001). Prolonged preservation was associated with a greater likelihood of death from primary graft dysfunction (2.8% vs. 1.5%, p < .001) but there was no difference in death from acute (2.0% vs. 1.7%, p = .402) or chronic rejection (2.0% vs. 1.9%, p = .618). In transplanted patients with >5 h of heart preservation, multivariable analysis identified greater mortality with ischemic cardiomyopathy etiology (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.36, p < 0.01), pre-transplant dialysis (HR = 1.84, p < .01), pre-transplant extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO, HR = 2.36, p = .09), and O blood type donor hearts (HR = 1.35, p < .01). CONCLUSION: Preservation time >5 h is associated with worse survival. This mortality risk is further amplified by preoperative dialysis and ECMO, ischemic cardiomyopathy etiology, and use of O blood type donor hearts.

Modeling primary microcephaly with human brain organoids reveals fundamental roles of CIT kinase activity.

Brain size and cellular heterogeneity are tightly regulated by species-specific proliferation and differentiation of multipotent neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Errors in this process are among the mechanisms of primary hereditary microcephaly (MCPH), a group of disorders characterized by reduced brain size and intellectual disability. Biallelic citron rho-interacting serine/threonine kinase (CIT) missense variants that disrupt kinase function (CITKI/KI) and frameshift loss-of-function variants (CITFS/FS) are the genetic basis for MCPH17; however, the function of CIT catalytic activity in brain development and NPC cytokinesis is unknown. Therefore, we created the CitKI/KI mouse model and found that it did not phenocopy human microcephaly, unlike biallelic CitFS/FS animals. Nevertheless, both Cit models exhibited binucleation, DNA damage, and apoptosis. To investigate human-specific mechanisms of CIT microcephaly, we generated CITKI/KI and CITFS/FS human forebrain organoids. We found that CITKI/KI and CITFS/FS organoids lost cytoarchitectural complexity, transitioning from pseudostratified to simple neuroepithelium. This change was associated with defects that disrupted the polarity of NPC cytokinesis, in addition to elevating apoptosis. Together, our results indicate that both CIT catalytic and scaffolding functions in NPC cytokinesis are critical for human corticogenesis. Species differences in corticogenesis and the dynamic 3D features of NPC mitosis underscore the utility of human forebrain organoid models for understanding human microcephaly.