Development of a cold storage solution for pancreas preservation

Abstract

Canine pancreas tissue slices were incubated at 5 °C for 24 hr in solutions containing different saccharides (raffinose, sucrose, mannitol, or glucose). At the end of incubation tissue water (TW expressed as kg H 2O kg dry wt) was determined as a measure of tissue edema. Tissue edema was greatest in slices stored in Eurocollins (EC) solution (TW = 4.96 ± 0.14) which contains glucose for osmotic pressure. The degree of edema was decreased by saccharides in proportion to their molecular mass: mannitol (MW = 180, TW = 3.84 ± 0.08), sucrose (MW = 348, TW = 3.54 ± 0.08), and raffinose (MW = 594, TW = 3.30 ± 0.07). Tissue edema was also greatest in slices incubated in solutions containing the smallest molecular mass anions: Cl − (TW = 4.02 ± 0.16), gluconate (TW = 3.69 ± 0.10), and lactobionate (TW = 3.28 ± 0.13). Cold storage of the intact pancreas in EC solution for 24 hr did not induce as much edema as in slices (TW = 2.88 ± 0.10). However, on isolated reperfusion at normothermia (37 °C) the pancreas became edematous (TW = 3.33 ± 0.12). Storage of the pancreas in a lactobionate-raffinose solution did not induce edema after 90 min of normothermic reperfusion. The suppression of tissue edema in the pancreas may be essential to obtaining long-term preservation (24–72 hr) of this organ which is currently limited to about 6–8 hr in EC solution. The newly developed lactobionate-raffinose solution appears to control tissue edema in both tissue slices and the intact-flushed out organ.