Tolerance limits of liver grafts with 30 minutes of warm ischemia to cold preservation in swine.

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the safe time limits of cold preservation in University of Wisconsin (UW) solution of liver grafts subjected to warm ischemia (WI) for 30 minutes from non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs).

METHODS

The safe time limits were studied in a simple porcine orthotopic liver transplantation (LTx) model. In donors, livers were subjected to 30 minutes of WI and subsequent 6-hour (Group 1, n = 5), 10-hour (Group 2, n = 5), and 14-hour (Group 3, n = 3) cold preservation in UW solution.

RESULTS

All 5 animals in Group 1 survived up to 7 days, the survey endpoint. In Group 2, only 2 animals survived to the same survey endpoint. All animals in Group 3 died within 12 hours. The 1-week survival rate of Group 1 was significantly higher than those of the other 2 groups. Group 1 showed a lower level of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) after LTx, less pathological damage, higher concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and higher microcirculation blood flux in the grafted liver tissue at 1 hour after reperfusion than the other 2 groups.

CONCLUSIONS

It is concluded that about 6 hours is the safe time limit of cold preservation in UW solution for liver grafts from NHBDs subjected to WI for 30 minutes.