Surgeons have successfully transplanted a human liver taken 3 days earlier

Swiss surgeons have successfully transplanted a liver, initially deemed unsuitable for transplantation, 72 hours after its removal. This great first involved the use of a revolutionary infusion machine.

Mimicking the functions of the human body more closely

The device was developed as an alternative solution to current clinical practice for liver transplants, consisting in storing the organ in ice for a maximum of twelve hours, which represents a relatively short time. The hope being that with technology that allows them to be stored for several days, more of these organs can be transplanted.

Scientists have spent years perfecting their technology, seeking to distinguish it from other infusion machines that preserve organs for transplantation by more closely mimicking the functions of the human body. Supplying the collected liver with oxygen and nutrients, it also monitors the levels of glucose and red blood cells of the blood substitute in real time. A pump serves as a replacement heart, an oxygenator replaces the lungs, a dialysis unit ensures kidney functions, while hormone infusions recreate the functions of the intestine and pancreas.

A major milestone had been reached in 2020, when the team succeeded in infusing pig livers for a week and making damaged human livers functional again. In doing so, the team demonstrated how the machine could improve transplant success rates, increasing the shelf life of a liver and “rejuvenating” organs deemed unsuitable for transplantation.

A major breakthrough

It is precisely this latter function that is behind the team’s latest breakthrough, detailed in the review Nature Biotechnologyduring which the machine was used to restore an initially “ discarded by all centers “. Treated for three days with various drugs to make it transplantable, the organ was implanted in a cancer patient suffering from several serious liver diseases.

Having received a basic immunosuppressant for the first six weeks following the procedure to prevent his immune system from rejecting the new organ, the man recovered quickly, returning to a normal quality of life with no signs of liver damage. A year after the procedure, he is still alive.

” Due to the rapid progression of my tumor, I had little chance of getting a liver on the waiting list in a reasonable time. “, he explained.

Towards a multicenter trial

For the team, the next steps will be to repeat the procedure on other patients, in a multicenter trial, and to study its long-term effects in order to demonstrate its safety and its effectiveness, paving the way for its clinical use.

” Our work shows that by treating livers using this infusion machine, it is possible to overcome the lack of functional human organs and save lives. », concludes the professor Pierre-Alain Clavienof the’Zurich University Hospital.

Earlier this year, Canadian researchers developed an enzymatic treatment to make harvested organs “universal” so that they can be safely transplanted into any patient.