Establishment of an ex vivo lung perfusion model using non-heart-beating large pigs.
BACKGROUND
Functional evaluation of potentially damaged lungs donated after cardiac death is crucial for widespread clinical transplantation. To date, the mean weight of animals used in studies of ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) has been 60 kg; however, in the clinical setting, donor weight may be greater.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate EVLP using lungs from large pigs (mean weight, 115 kg) to simulate human adult lungs donated after cardiac death.


METHODS
Five heart-lung blocks were obtained at 20 minutes after death at the slaughterhouse. The lungs were flushed and preserved on ice for 6 hours before being connected to an ex vivo lung circuit, and were perfused for at least 2 hours.


RESULTS
In all cases, perfusion was sustained for at least 2 hours. Mean (SEM) final flow rate was 4.9 (0.1) L/min, pulmonary artery pressure was 14.8 (1.7) mm Hg, and oxygen tension/fraction of inspired oxygen was 518.0 (18.0) mm Hg. The shunt fraction was 20.5% (4.0%). Histologic analysis demonstrated no significant pulmonary edema at the end of perfusion.


CONCLUSIONS
We successfully completed EVLP using lungs from large pigs.
Okamoto
T
T
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan. tokamoto@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Chen
F
F
Zhang
J
J
Yamada
T
T
Nakayama
E
E
Morikawa
H
H
Bando
T
T
Date
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001926:Brain Death; D006355:Heart-Lung Machine; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000502:physiology*; D016040:Lung Transplantation / Q000502:physiology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009929:Organ Size; D010477:Perfusion / Q000379:methods*; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000502:physiology; D013552:Swine