The evolution from organ preservation to organ resuscitation - my brief research history -

Abstract

The development of organ preservation techniques has started since the onset of transplantation as a basis of the procedure. Today, the donor shortage is promoting the novel concept, “organ resuscitation”, to the preservation, in order to expand the donor pool to marginal or even submarginal donors such as donors after circulation death. This article reviews the history and recent development of organ resuscitation focusing on author’s own work. Aiming to clinical application, proof of concept was established first by the experiments with rodents and then, preclinical translational studies were performed in pigs that are mimicking well human anatomy and physiology as well as body size. The improvement of the clinical procedures is also studied in pigs as a reverse translational research. One good example, the use of hydrogen gas in preservation solution, was introduced here. The development of medical procedure is built upon the coordination of basic and clinical research, in other words, elaboration of translational and reverse translational researches. Research in organ resuscitation may realize the artificial construction of organs in test tubes.