Organomatics and organometrics: Novel platforms for long-term whole-organ culture

Abstract

Organ culture systems are instrumental as experimental whole-organ models of physiology and disease, as well as preservation modalities facilitating organ replacement therapies such as transplantation. Nevertheless, a coordinated system of machine perfusion components and integrated regulatory control has yet to be fully developed to achieve long-term maintenance of organ function ex vivo. Here we outline current strategies for organ culture, or organomatics, and how these systems can be regulated by means of computational algorithms, or organometrics, to achieve the organ culture platforms anticipated in modern-day biomedicine.

Functional Human Liver Preservation and Recovery by Means of Subnormothermic Machine Perfusion

“…As machine perfusion technology develops further and achieves more widespread clinical application, accurate correlations between ex vivo function and clinical outcome can be made and perfusion parameters will be useful in aiding decisions to transplant or reject marginal-quality livers. Moreover, as point-of care analytical tools advance, more sophisticated analysis will become available directly during machine perfusion 21 .…”

Ice, ice, maybe? Is it time to ditch the igloo cooler? Benefits of machine perfusion preservation of donor hearts

“…65 Moving from current hypothermic, static storage to truly customized and optimal donor recipient matching requires the development of organ incubators that not only meet the immediate metabolic needs but also achieve homeostasis of the organ over a period of weeks to months (Figure 2). 66 A working mode system mimicking in vivo cardiac work would be critical for maintaining donor hearts to avoid myocyte atrophy and ensure a functional organ after transplantation. Donor hearts could be optimally matched by age, size, and human leukocyte antigens.…”

Lung Stem Cells in the Epithelium and Vasculature

“…One potential area of active research is to improve perfusion techniques ex vivo to improve the quality of organs previously deemed as suboptimal organs, and thus increase the potential donor pool based on existing organ availability (Bruinsma et al 2014 ). In liver transplantation, it is known that for grafts with suboptimal quality the traditionally used static cold preservation fails to maintain cell viability and results in poor graft performance.…”