The effect of warm ischemia and cold-storage preservation on rat pancreas transplantation

Abstract

Pancreatic isografts subjected to preharvest warm ischemia as well as cold-storage preservation in Collins' solution were studied after transplantation into diabetic rats to determine whether warm ischemia will limit the ability to preserve pancreas grafts for transplantation. Warm ischemic periods of up to 2 hr did not alter islet function as measured by daily glucose levels and response to intravenous glucose challenge. Likewise, hypothermic preservation of nonischemic pancreata was also well tolerated for up to 24 hr. However, the combination of preharvest warm ischemia and cold storage was deleterious. Whereas 60 min of warm injury coupled with 12 hr of cold storage resulted in successful transplantation in 86% of recipients, lengthening the duration of either warm or cold ischemia uniformly resulted in nonfunctioning grafts. Thus while islet function in the transplanted pancreas is very tolerant of warm ischemia alone, these studies suggest that it should be kept to a minimum if cold storage preservation is to be used.