The emerging technology of machine perfusion has become a key modality to address the increasing disparity between patients on the transplant waiting list and available organ donors. Developing advanced perfusion platforms is crucial in organ preservation; the platforms will help facilitate the assessment, reconditioning, repair, and regeneration of organs from deceased donors.
Techniques for liver transplantation based on normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) are routine in clinical practice; however, the benefits in kidney transplantation are ambiguous. While ex vivo NMP of deceased livers has been extended up to 12 days, with successful transplantation after 3 days of perfusion, studies on normothermic kidney transfusion range from 1 to 6 hours.
Marlon J.A. de Haan and colleagues in the Netherlands conducted a study to test the hypothesis that the use of red blood cells (RBCs) and associated secondary hemolysis may cause renal injury, thus offsetting the potential advantages of NMP. Results of the study were reported in Nature Communications.