TY - JOUR A2 - Schemmer, Peter AU - Currin, Robert T. AU - Peng, Xing-Xi AU - Lemasters, John J. PY - 2012 DA - 2012/07/19 TI - Ischemic Preconditioning of Rat Livers from Non-Heart-Beating Donors Decreases Parenchymal Cell Killing and Increases Graft Survival after Transplantation SP - 236406 VL - 2012 AB - A critical shortage of donors exists for liver transplantation, which non-heart-beating cadaver donors could help ease. This study evaluated ischemic preconditioning to improve graft viability after non-heart-beating liver donation in rats. Ischemic preconditioning was performed by clamping the portal vein and hepatic artery for 10 min followed by unclamping for 5 min. Subsequently, the aorta was cross-clamped for up to 120 min. After 2 h of storage, livers were either transplanted or perfused with warm buffer containing trypan blue. Aortic clamping for 60 and 120 min prior to liver harvest markedly decreased 30-day graft survival from 100% without aortic clamping to 50% and 0%, respectively, which ischemic preconditioning restored to 100 and 50%. After 60 min of aortic clamping, loss of viability of parenchymal and nonparenchymal cells was 22.6 and 5.6%, respectively, which preconditioning decreased to 3.0 and 1.5%. Cold storage after aortic clamping further increased parenchymal and non-parenchymal cell killing to 40.4 and 10.1%, respectively, which ischemic preconditioning decreased to 12.4 and 1.8%. In conclusion, ischemic preconditioning markedly decreased cell killing after subsequent sustained warm ischemia. Most importantly, ischemic preconditioning restored 100% graft survival of livers harvested from non-heart-beating donors after 60 min of aortic clamping. SN - 0894-8569 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/236406 DO - 10.1155/2012/236406 JF - HPB Surgery PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -