Viability of Partial Liver Graft from Living Donor in Pigs.

Abstract

For evaluation of the viability of partial liver graft from a living donor, we investigated energy production of mitochondria and radical scavenging enzyme activities in partial and whole liver transplantation in pigs. The values of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and total adenine nucleotide (TAN) of the partial liver graft were higher than those of the whole liver graft, whereas the hypoxanthine of the partial liver graft was lower than that of the whole liver graft. There was no statistical difference in the radical scavenging enzyme activities between the two groups. The values of respiratory control ratio (RCR) in both groups were above 3.0 and there was no statistical difference. The survival rates of pigs received partial liver and whole liver graft with 2 to 3 hr cold preservation was 71% and 91%, respectively and there was no statistical difference between two groups. These results suggest that viabilities of the partial liver graft from the living donor are satisfactory enough, compared with those of whole liver graft from a cadaver, living-donor liver transplantation; graft viability; pig; partial graft

The safety of the donor operation in living-donor liver transplantation: an analysis of 45 donors

“…After division of the liver parenchyma, we waited for 1 h to allow the graft to recover from the surgical manipulation, however, we have no data on this. Moreover, we retrieved the graft without vascular occlusion, since the viability of the grafts without vascular occlusion has been reported to be better than that of cadaveric grafts [2]. These procedures might contribute to improve liver microcirculation and function after the retrieval of the graft.…”

“…Therefore, the safety of the donor operation must be guaranteed while the viability of the graft is maintained. In our institute we transect the donor liver without using the vascular occlusion technique [4] and inject gabexate mesilate into the portal vein after cannulation to maintain the viability of the graft [2]. We retrospectively reviewed the safety of our donor operations based on parameters such as blood loss, blood transfusion, operation time, duration of hospitalization, and complications.…”

Porcine Living Liver Transplantation Using a Vascular Prosthesis to Replace the Intrahepatic Vena cava

“…Indeed, because of a large number of tiny short hepatic veins, the preservation of recipient IVC often leads to the recipient animal's death due to massive hemorrhage from the dissecting surface of the liver. To overcome this technical problem, Katoh et al [15] proposed a partial liver graft porcine model from living donor in which the caudate lobe was not removed in order to pre-serve the recipient IVC. However, the remaining part of the native liver may represent a confounding element in the evaluation of the follow-up of the recipient.…”

“…Nevertheless, the choice of the porcine model appears to be justified because of its better result when the survival rate is considered, being 71% [15] as compared to the canine models (0-43%) [12,13] or the monkey model (35%) [14].…”

“…This anatomical configuration, together with the obvious necessity of preserving the IVC in the living donor, is the major technical limitation in performing LLT in pigs. A partial liver graft porcine model from living donor has been described in 1994 by Katoh et al [15].…”