October 2, 2019
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group led by Project Professor Eiji Kobayashi of the Keio University School of Medicine and Associate Professor Motoaki Sano of the Department of Internal Medicine (Cardiology) at the same university, in a joint study with Doctors-Man Co., Ltd. (CEO: So Hashimoto), has demonstrated that by rapidly injecting hydrogen gas into an organ preservation solution, injured organs removed from aged miniature pigs (donors) after a period of circulatory arrest can be resuscitated into transplantable organs.
In this study, the research group has developed a new method to safely produce a hydrogen-rich organ preservation solution in just a few minutes by instantly injecting hydrogen gas from a hydrogen-absorbing alloy canister, used as a hydrogen gas storage device, into a container holding the organ preservation solution.
Organ transplantation from marginal donors, including donors after cardiac death, is an important measure to compensate for the shortage of organ donors and shorten transplant waiting times. However, in marginal organs, in addition to warm ischemic injury, cold preservation injury in the organ preservation solution causes severe ischemia-reperfusion injury at the time of transplantation and also leads to a high probability of primary non-function after transplantation. Therefore, it was expected that charging the organ preservation solution with hydrogen gas using a simple method could promote the functional recovery of damaged organs before transplantation and improve the post-transplant prognosis.
The method newly developed by this research group makes it possible to easily bring a hydrogen gas source to the site of transplant organ procurement. Therefore, even in emergencies, hydrogen gas can be rapidly injected into the organ preservation solution at the site of donor organ procurement.
The results of this study are expected to help expand the use of donor organs that were previously considered unsuitable for transplantation.
These findings were published in the online edition of the American scientific journal "PLOS ONE" on October 1, 2019 (US Eastern Time).
Please see below for the full press release.