Organ freezing breakthrough could mean hundreds more lives are saved

A SCIENTIFIC breakthrough could save hundreds of lives by allowing hospitals to store organs for transplant.

For the first time, scientists have successfully warmed up frozen heart valves, which could lead to an organ bank being created within a decade.

Transplant patients currently have a narrow window of opportunity, as ambulances speed to reach them with donated organs which can be kept on ice for a maximum of just four hours.

It is estimated that almost two-thirds of hearts and lungs are wasted every year.

But researchers at the University of Minnesota believed they have solved the problem after ‘ rewarming’ animal heart valves and tissue.

The technology to preserve organs has been around since the 1980s. But the biggest problem has been when they are warmed back up, which often leaves tissues massively damaged and useless for transplantation.

Lead author Dr John Bischof said: ‘These results are very exciting and could have a huge societal benefit if we could someday bank organs for transplant.

‘This is the first time that anyone has

‘Waiting lists could be eliminated’

been able to scale up to a larger biological system and demonstrate successful, fast, and uniform warming of preserved tissue without damaging the tissue.’

The scientists say they are ‘cautiously hopeful’ the technique could work to save a human kidney or heart. There are currently 6,500 people in Britain on the list for a transplant, with around 400 a year dying while they wait. It has been suggested that if only half of unused organs were successfully transplanted, waiting lists could be eliminated within two years.

The US scientists used silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles, which act as tiny heaters around tissue when they are activated using electromagnetic waves.

After rewarming, tests showed that none of the tissues displayed signs of harm, unlike control samples rewarmed slowly or those using convection heating.

Human trials with skin and muscle are planned within 18 months and then the technology could be trialed on parts of a human face and hands.