Heart Transplantation using Ex-vivo Heart Perfusion

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K10215
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cardiovascular surgery
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: KOTANI YASUHIRO 岡山大学, 医歯薬学総合研究科, 助教 (90534678)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): OH Hidemasa 岡山大学病院, 新医療研究開発センター・再生医療部, 教授 (50372579)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 心臓移植 / 再還流 / 心停止ドナー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The shortage of donor pool remains a problem in heart transplantation. The alternative donor source is the non-heart beating donor: however, it is still unknown that how the heart function is recovered after the massive insult from the cardiac arrest and this makes difficult to use the heart from the non-heart beating donor. The purpose of this project is to see whether or not the heart is recovered from cardiac death.
We found that the heart can be recovered from cardiac death when the appropriate heart preservation is done by means of controlled reperfusion. Another key finding is that the heart can be evaluated before transplantation by ex-vivo apparatus. The blood test looking at lactate level is found to be a predict marker for adequate recovery. Taken together, our finding suggests that the heart from non-heart beating donor can be used for the heart transplantation when the heart is reperfused with appropriate manner.

Free Research Field

心臓血管外科