Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is a highly successful therapeutic modality for the treatment of both acute and chronic liver failure which is severely limited by the scarcity of donor livers. Among the livers donated after brain death, the most common single predisposing risk factor for postoperative liver failure is steatosis; thus, fatty livers are often considered to be """"""""unacceptable"""""""" or """"""""marginally acceptable"""""""" for transplantation. The incidence of hepatic steatosis is 10 to 25% based on autopsy studies and donor liver biopsies. It is clear that methods that would salvage discarded donors because of severe steatosis could significantly reduce the number of patient deaths, and help close the gap between supply and demand in liver transplantation. The overall hypothesis is that discarded donor livers, and more specifically steatotic livers (and in the long run donors after cardiac death), can be salvaged by perfusion with artificial solutions under well-controlled conditions and at physiological temperatures in order to promote defatting and cellular repair, and as a result made capable to withstand surgical procedures and reduce the risk of postoperative liver dysfunction to a level similar to that observed in normal livers. In the studies proposed herein, our objective is to apply this approach to fatty livers, and eventually to the more complex case of ischemic livers (i.e. from donors after cardiac death).
Our specific aims are: (1) To optimize metabolism for defatting steatotic livers during normothermic or mild hypothermic perfusion; (2) To investigate the combined effects of heat shock and warm perfusion on microvascular function and transplantability in steatotic livers; (3) To develop a normothermic perfusion protocol that restores mitochondrial function and ATP stores in warm ischemic livers. In the short-term, the proposed studies could (a) provide the rationale basis for increasing the donor pool size; (b) improve the outcome of patients which receive marginal donor livers; (c) prolong the useful preservation time of steatotic, defatted, as well as warm ischemic livers. In the long-term, these studies will lead to (a) increased donor pool size and (b) increased organ storage time beyond the limits of current cold storage techniques. These outcomes will significantly alleviate donor shortage and lead the way to donor banking, with the potential to revolutionize donor liver allocation.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed studies will provide basic scientific information and new technologies that will enable the recovery of donor livers that are otherwise rejected from the donor pool. In the long-term, these studies will lead to (a) increased donor pool size and (b) increased organ storage time beyond the limits of current cold storage techniques. These outcomes will significantly alleviate donor shortage and lead the way to donor banking, with the potential to revolutionize donor liver allocation. ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01DK059766-05A2
Application #
7526491
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-DIG-E (10))
Program Officer
Serrano, Jose
Project Start
2001-06-01
Project End
2012-06-30
Budget Start
2008-09-01
Budget End
2009-06-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$370,520
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
073130411
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02199
Yarmush, Gabriel; Santos, Lucas; Yarmush, Joshua et al. (2016) Metabolic Flux Distribution during Defatting of Steatotic Human Hepatoma (HepG2) Cells. Metabolites 6:
Izamis, Maria-Louisa; Perk, Sinem; Calhoun, Candice et al. (2015) Machine perfusion enhances hepatocyte isolation yields from ischemic livers. Cryobiology 71:244-55
Nativ, Nir I; Yarmush, Gabriel; So, Ashley et al. (2014) Elevated sensitivity of macrosteatotic hepatocytes to hypoxia/reoxygenation stress is reversed by a novel defatting protocol. Liver Transpl 20:1000-11
Nativ, Nir I; Chen, Alvin I; Yarmush, Gabriel et al. (2014) Automated image analysis method for detecting and quantifying macrovesicular steatosis in hematoxylin and eosin-stained histology images of human livers. Liver Transpl 20:228-36
Liu, Qiang; Izamis, Maria-Louisa; Xu, Hongzhi et al. (2013) Strategies to rescue steatotic livers before transplantation in clinical and experimental studies. World J Gastroenterol 19:4638-50
Nativ, Nir I; Yarmush, Gabriel; Chen, Alvin et al. (2013) Rat hepatocyte culture model of macrosteatosis: effect of macrosteatosis induction and reversal on viability and liver-specific function. J Hepatol 59:1307-14
Patel, Suraj J; Milwid, Jack M; King, Kevin R et al. (2012) Gap junction inhibition prevents drug-induced liver toxicity and fulminant hepatic failure. Nat Biotechnol 30:179-83
Tolboom, Herman; Izamis, Maria-Louisa; Sharma, Nripen et al. (2012) Subnormothermic machine perfusion at both 20°C and 30°C recovers ischemic rat livers for successful transplantation. J Surg Res 175:149-56
Parekkadan, Biju; Fletcher, Anne L; Li, Matthew et al. (2012) Aire controls mesenchymal stem cell-mediated suppression in chronic colitis. Mol Ther 20:178-86
Nativ, N I; Maguire, T J; Yarmush, G et al. (2012) Liver defatting: an alternative approach to enable steatotic liver transplantation. Am J Transplant 12:3176-83

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