title: FIRST STEPS TOWARDS ORGAN BANKS: VITRIFICATION OF RENAL PRIMORDIAL.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Kidney transplantation from deceased or living human donors has been limited by donor availability as opposed to the increasing demand, by the risks of allograft loss rejection and immunosuppressive therapy toxicity and by limitations of organ preservation protocols, which is essential to organise staff and facilities, transport organs, and perform necessary laboratory tests. However, the cryopreservation of composite tissues poses technical challenges beyond those seen in the preservation of single tissue types or organs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of our study was to establish a protocol for long-term storing of renal primordia, that generates new adult kidneys after transplant into a syngeneic non-immunosuppressed host.
  
  
  METHODS
  Metanephroi from 16-days-old embryos were microdissected and vitrified following the minimum essential volume method and using Cryotop as a device and VM3 as vitrification solution. After 3 months of storage in liquid nitrogen (-196 degree C), 20 metanephroi were warmed and transplanted using minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery into retroperitoneal fat of 5-month-old immune-competent New Zealand rabbits. In the same way, 22 fresh metanephroi were transplanted. Twenty-one days after transplantation, hosts were euthanized and developed kidneys were recovered and evaluated morphologically and histologically.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant growth and fully differentiated mature glomeruli and tubule were observed in all kidney graft explants recovered. In total, 5 metanephroi (25.0%) were successfully grown after vitrification. In the same way, 12 metanephroi (54.5%) were successfully grown in the fresh group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These encouraging results reported that metanephroi not only survive vitrification, but they vascularized and developed morphologically normal glomeruli after their allotransplantation. These results suggest that it's possible to create a long-term biobank of kidney precursors as an unlimited source of organs for transplantation, and open new therapeutic possibilities for the patients with chronic renal failure.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologia Animal, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Garcia-Dominguez
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Urologia, Hospital Universitari i Politecnic La Fe, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Vera-Donoso
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas, Universidad CEU-Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jimenez-Trigos
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas, Universidad CEU-Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologia Animal, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain. fmarco@dca.upv.es.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marco-Jimenez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015925:Cryopreservation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D016332:Fetal Tissue Transplantation / Q000662:veterinary*; D007668:Kidney / Q000196:embryology*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000662:veterinary*; D009926:Organ Preservation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D011817:Rabbits; D014015:Tissue Banks; D058989:Vitrification