title: The use of a supercooling refrigerator improves the preservation of organ grafts.
abstract: Current medical transplantation confronts major problems such as the shortage of donors and geographical restrictions that inhibit efficient utilization of finite donor organs within their storage lives. To overcome these issues, expanding organ preservation time has become a major concern. We investigated whether a strategy which best preserves organ grafts can be achieved by the use of a newly developed refrigerating chamber, which is capable of establishing a supercooled and unfrozen state stably by generating an electrostatic field in its inside. When adult rat organs such as heart, liver, and kidneys were stored in the supercooled conditions, the levels of major biochemical markers leaked from the preserved organs were significantly lower than in the ordinary hypothermic storage. No apparent tissue damages were observed histologically after the supercooled preservation. Our results suggest that the use of this supercooling refrigerator improves organ preservation and may provide an innovative technique for human organ transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, Bunkyo-ku, Japan.
authors.forename: Koshiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Monzen
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hosoda
authors.forename: Doubun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Imai
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okawa
authors.forename: Takahide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kohro
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Uozaki
authors.forename: Tomoki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishiyama
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukayama
authors.forename: Ryozo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nagai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005615:Freezing; D006652:Histological Techniques; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D016040:Lung Transplantation; D009926:Organ Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D012034:Refrigeration; D013997:Time Factors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D019737:Transplants