Live pigs give damaged lungs a "new lease of life"

sometimes, donated lung sources are too badly damaged to be used for transplants. But when the researchers used live pigs to blood the lungs, they regained their vitality. The researchers say the technology will triple the number of lungs available for transplantation. The paper is published in Nature - Medicine.
the lungs begin to deteriorate after death. If the deceased has chosen to donate his lungs, the organ must be transplanted to the recipient as soon as possible. "The lungs are very fragile and one of the most difficult organs to preserve." James Fildes of the University of Manchester, who was not involved in the study, said.
most donated lungs can only stay outside the body for a few hours, New Scientist reported. But even so, most cells are severely degraded and cannot be safely used for transplantation. In the United States, only about 28 percent of donated lung sources meet transplant criteria, according to the American Lung Association. Current strategies to increase the use of lung sources include the use of in-body pulmonary perfusion (EVLP) to support pre-transplant lung function, a technique that pumps oxygen and nutrients without interruption, but many have failed, says Gordona Vunjak-Novakovic of Columbia University in New York.
Vonjak-Novakovic and colleagues wanted to know if the supply would perform better if human lungs were linked to a living body and other working organs that could deliver nutrients and remove harmful substances.
to find out, the team obtained lungs from six donors that did not meet transplant criteria, from both single and double lungs. One of the lungs remained depleted after 5 hours of use of the EVLP device and had been in-body for 24 hours before the team received it.
team connected the lungs to the circulatory system of anaesthetized pigs for 24 hours. The researchers used tubes to introduce pig blood into the human lungs. At the same time, air is pumped into the lungs using a ventilator and immunosuppressants are given to the pigs to prevent the immune system from dissociate.
previous studies by Vonjak-Novakovic suggest that this process does not appear to have any lasting effect on pigs. In previous experiments, she said, the pigs were able to move around, playing with toys, eating food and being connected to a device used to support other pigs' lungs.
"treatment", all lungs had white areas, indicating that tissue was dying and could not be injected with enough oxygen into the blood. But after a 24-hour connection, the lungs appear to have changed. The Vunjak-Novakovic team conducted a series of tests that showed significant improvements in the lungs' cells, tissue structure and oxygen supply, and even the lungs, which had been in-body for nearly two days, appeared to have recovered. "It's amazing." Fildes said.
"They're not 100% normal, but they're close enough." Vunjak-Novakovic said. In theory, the lungs appear healthy enough to be transplanted, but she says further research is needed to assess the clinical potential of the method, including whether the pig cells and factors left in the lungs cause an immune response in the transplanted person or cause the spread of the disease.
, Vunjak-Novakovic plans to use medical-grade pigs that do not hide harmful pathogens that could be transmitted to humans. However, this does not necessarily mean that the lungs will be completely free of pig cells. Fildes warns that current studies have found that the lungs contain white blood cells from pigs, which can trigger an immune response from the recipient. (Source: Tang Erdu, China Science Journal)
related paper information: