Hearts kept alive for 24 hours in ‘game-changer’ for transplants
HEARTS can be kept alive for a day after death, scientists have shown in a breakthrough that could help solve the organ donation crisis.
Currently, hearts must be transplanted within a critical four-hour window, after which too much damage has occurred for the organ to be useful. The limited time period hugely restricts how far away organs can be sought.
Scientists at the University of Texas have shown that they can extend the period to one day, using a new machine that floods the heart with pulses of oxygen, like in natural breathing, while bathing it in a soup of saltwater and glucose to mimic body conditions.
The team believes it could also be used by army doctors to preserve the severed limbs of soldiers until they can be reattached, or by paramedics.
The device, which is the size of small suitcase, and easily portable, is likely to cost around £100,000.
They have shown it works on pig hearts, which are similar to human ones, and researchers are now seeking permission from regulators to begin clinical trials, with human trials potentially within 18 months. It would mean hearts from all over the world could be shipped to those in need. Dr Rafael Veraza, from the university, said: “The machine is a game-changer and has the potential to save thousands of lives.
“Keeping a heart alive for 24 hours would allow doctors to transport it almost anywhere in the world to whoever needs it.” In 2018-19, there were 178 heart transplants in Britain but 286 were left on the waiting list, and around 20 patients die while waiting for a heart each year.
The average person waits almost three years for a heart. But around three in four donated hearts do not reach a patient in time.
Researchers said the new technique also allowed for better matches to be made, rather than settling for the first organ that becomes available.
Prof Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said organ transplantation was a “complex process” and there was often a small window of time between donation and the recipient receiving an organ.
“If successful and approved, new technologies that preserve the donor heart for longer may provide further progress in organ transplantation, offering hope to those in need.”
John Forsythe, medical director for organ donation and transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said it was vital to embrace “all new research and techniques to improve the chances that these desperately ill patients will get the call they are waiting for”.
The research was presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.