New Organ Preservation
NEW ORGAN PRESERVATION SOLUTION EXTENDS PRESERVATION TIMES, HOLDS PROMISE OF MAJOR IMPACT ON LIVER, PANCREAS TRANSPLANTS from the American Council on Transplantation A solution that increases the time organs can be preserved for
transplantation, developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, has been cleared by the Federal Drug Administration for use in the United States.
The Belzer/UW Organ Preservation Solution, developed by Folkert Belzer, M.D. and James Southard, Ph.D., has been shown in clinical trials conducted at the University of Pittsburgh to triple the time available from the time of donation of a liver or pancreas to its transplantation in a recipient.
The UW Solution increases the storage time for livers and pancreases from approximately six to 36 hours, and from 24 to 36 hours for kidneys. In addition, experience with the solution has shows the organs are not only preserved better, but function better and sooner after transplantation.
“The longer preservation time increases the availability of organs – they can be harvested in one part of the country and safely shipped to waiting patients hundreds of miles away. An international network to match organs and recipients can be come a reality with this solution,” explained Dr. Belzer, co-inventor of the solution and professor and chairman of the UW Medical School Department of Surgery.
The solution also will enable surgeons to perform transplant that once had to be done immediately on a non-emergency basis, Dr. Belzer added. “Formerly, liver and pancreas transplants had to be performed within six to 10 hours of harvest. With longer preservation, the operation becomes less rushed and safer for patients.”
Dr. Belzer and his colleagues have been pioneers in organ preservation for the past 20 years and have played a major role in development of means for preserving kidneys for up to 72 hours. It was this success that led to efforts to find the similar answers for other organs.
Dr. Belzer and biochemist Southard, UW Medical School associate professor of surgery, began exploring means to extend the life of donor livers and pancreases. Donor livers and pancreases formerly had been preserved in a cold storage solution that also was used to store kidneys. However, they found that the kidney’s metabolism is different than the liver and pancreas, leading them to search for a different mixture of preservation chemicals.
“We needed an effective impermeant for the liver and pancreas,” Dr. Southard explained. They found it in the form of a solution containing loctobionate, a substance that suppresses swelling and deterioration in the cells of the liver and pancreas. The loctobionate replaced glucose in the solution which, they found, entered the organs cells and produced swelling that caused structural damage.
An report in the February 1989 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association noted “the remarkable effectiveness of the solution has revolutionized liver transplantation at almost every level. The enhanced margin of safety has permitted more effective use of organs that can be stored safely while waiting for operating room facilities or personnel to become available.”
Du Pont Pharmaceuticals has been licensed to manufacture and market the Belzer/UW Organ Preservation Solution in the United States and Europe.