Abstract

BACKGROUND: Due to the severe shortage of deceased donors, demand for living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has increased worldwide. Here, we compared POLYSOL, a recently developed low-viscosity preservation solution, and histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) for cold storage of partial liver graft in this study.

METHODS: Partial liver transplantations with 30% of the native liver were performed in Lewis rats. The graft livers were flushed with either HTK or POLYSOL (n = 25, respectively) and stored in the respective solution for 3 h at 5°C. Graft function was evaluated regarding ischemia-reperfusion injury and regeneration at 1, 3, 24, and 168 h after reperfusion.

RESULTS: POLYSOL preservation resulted in improvement of portal venous flow (HTK versus POLYSOL; mean ± SEM: 16.8 ± 2.2 versus 21.6 ± 2.1 mL/min; P = 0.005), microcirculation (383 ± 63 versus 532 ± 64 Flux; P = 0.045), ALT (310.2 ± 56.1 versus 181.8 ± 17.0 IU/L; P = 0.0262), LDH (4052.4 ± 764.4 versus 2494.1 ± 410.0 IU/L; P = 0.0215), total bilirubin (21.6 ± 14.2 versus 4.0 ± 0.6 IU/L; P = 0.0236), malondialdehyde (100.0 ± 4.3 versus 69.2 ± 4.0 nmol/mL; P = 0.0015), as well histologic findings at 24 h. Liver regeneration was improved in POLYSOL with regards to liver weight (4.0 ± 0.2 versus 4.3 ± 0.3 g; P = 0.038) and Ki-67 labeling index (9.67 ± 2.17 versus 1.10 ± 0.14%; P < 0.0001) at 24 h with higher up-regulation of portal VEGF (31.55 ± 5.78 versus 91.94 ± 9.27 pg/mL; P = 0.0052).

CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that POLYSOL improves microcirculation and thus improves the preservation quality of partial liver transplantation.

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