The new device keeps the heart 'fresh' longer before waiting for a transplant

From the moment an organ is removed from a donor and frozen, cells in that organ begin to die.

Organ transplants face many barriers, the biggest of which is the issue of time. The race against this time is often difficult to solve, with about 70% of hearts unable to take it to the recipient promptly.

"The standard of care for cardiac storage and transport is cooling with a limited storage period of 4 hours from the time the heart is crossed over to the recipient. Anemia, limited supply. blood flow to the tissue, causing oxygen deprivation to the tissue and leading to cell death that begins as soon as the heart is removed from the body, so the heart has to be immediately delivered to the recipient within 4 hours . of the study, Dr. Rafael Veraza said.

This device can extend its external storage time from 4 hours to 24 hours.

In fact, by limiting the time to 4 hours, the geographical position where the heart can match the appropriate recipient is limited. With a device that can extend the storage time beyond 4 hours to 24 hours, it will expand the geographical position where the heart can be transported to the appropriate recipient.

At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle, the team presented results from their new method that could help the heart stay ' fresh' longer. The team claims that their storage device showed no damage to heart muscle cells, called cardiac muscle cells, after 24 hours in the machine. The technology, called ULiSSES ™ , uses the perfusion method to keep cells nourished and oxidized. This delays cell death, which is the key to extending the time for transplant problems.

Histopathological results demonstrated that cardiac muscle cells were intact, there was no visible cardiac muscle cell damage and no signs of inflammatory cells.

The experiment was performed on five pig hearts placed in ULiSSES ™ immediately after they died. The device keeps the heart beating at 60 beats per minute and at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. The team flooded the heart with oxidized Krebs-Henseleit , which provides oxygen and nutrients to the cells.

The team is currently monitoring the device's limitations if a heart stored in an ice for one hour and then placed in the device can still exist for the entire 24-hour period.

Infusion as a method has recently been used to expand liver survival, and investigations are underway to learn more about the effects of these human transplants. However, more research is still needed to test the effectiveness of the device on the human heart.

1. He had the first successful surgery of a dead heart transplant
2. Testing non-beating artificial heart implants