A remarkable liver rejuvenation procedure is set to transform transplantation

THE ESSENTIAL

• The liver is an organ that is part of the digestive system.
• It filters and renews the blood.

It is a world first. A multidisciplinary research team from Zurich has successfully treated an initially damaged human liver in a machine for three days outside the body, then implanted the recovered organ into a cancer patient. “A year later, the patient is doing well,” welcome the authors of the study in a press release.

The patient was able to leave the hospital a few days after the transplant: “I am very grateful for this organ which saved my life. Due to the rapid progression of my tumor, I had little chance of getting a liver on the waiting list in a reasonable time”, did he declare.

infusion machine

The study team credits their achievement to an in-house created "infusion machine," which allows a human organ to be implanted in a patient after a three-day storage period outside the body. "The machine mimics the human body as precisely as possible in order to create optimal circumstances for human livers," the researchers say. "A pump is utilized to substitute the heart, an oxygenator replaces the lungs, and a dialysis device replaces the kidneys' duties." Furthermore, numerous hormone and nutrition infusions execute the duties of the gut and pancreas," they say. The mechanism, like the diaphragm in the human body, moves the liver in sync with human respiration.

Lower the tension

The scientists used several medications to prepare the liver in the machine. Although the liver was initially not authorized for transplantation, it was able to make it into a healthy graft in this manner. The perfusion of the organ over many days allows for the administration of antibiotics or hormonal treatments, as well as the optimization of the liver's metabolism. Furthermore, long laboratory or tissue analyses may be carried out with no time limits. "Under regular conditions, this is not conceivable because organs may only be kept routinely on ice for 12 hours," the researchers explain.

The experiment will now be repeated on 24 more livers. Organ transplants may eventually no longer need to be done in an emergency and become operations that can be scheduled ahead of time, minimizing the anxiety associated with these treatments.