Researchers Find Way to Preserve Organs Longer Prior to Transplant

University of Wisconsin researchers report they have found a way to preserve organs for longer periods after their removal from a cadaver donor, decreasing organ damage and making it possible to better match organs to patients waiting at distant transplant centers.

The breakthrough has come in new refinements to the University of Wisconsin solution, a synthetic solution that has become the gold-standard used by organ procurement teams to preserve organs.

Since its development in 1986, when it replaced a blood-based solution that consisted of natural products, the so-called UW solution has enabled kidneys to be stored for as much as a day, and livers and other organs for shorter periods, with little damage.

But even though the UW Solution enabled organs to be stored longer than before, it still resulted in injury to the organs such as livers when storage times exceeded a relatively low number of hours.

"As we developed a totally synthetic solution, we gained many benefits but also lost some benefits of blood-based solutions that were not recognized at the time," said UW veterinary surgeon Jonathan McAnulty.

Now, the researchers report that by adding small proteins found in natural solutions called trophic factors, which stimulate growth and DNA repair, to the original UW Solution, harvested kidneys could be kept alive for six days with little damage.

"Dog kidneys stored for four days in the modified solution had damage equivalent to two days or less in the unmodified one," the researchers reported in the August issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

McAnulty said the researchers also found that the modified UW Solution slows the rate at which damage occurs to the harvested organ.

"If injury accumulates at a slower rate, then the damage that occurs at shorter time periods will be less," he said.

"The last major improvement of cold storage of kidneys was when the UW Solution was developed," said McAnulty. "Our research marks a quantum leap forward in the efficacy of kidney storage and provides new concepts regarding the mechanisms active in preventing organ failure during storage."

A proposal to begin clinical trials is pending.