The functional effects of suppression of hypothermia-induced cell swelling in liver preservation by cold storage

Abstract

It is known that cellular edema and functional impairment develop during anaerobic cold storage of organs. The extent of both is related to the storage time and the composition of the preservation solution used. We studied hypothermia-induced cell swelling and its effect on liver function after cold storage preservation with either Eurocollins (EC), a number of modified EC solutions in which glucose was replaced by various concentrations of raffinose, or UW solution. After 24 h storage, tissue swelling as determined by total tissue water (TTW) in rat liver tissue slices was most pronounced in slices incubated in Eurocollins, whereas the TTW was only moderately increased in slices stored in modified Eurocollins containing 90 to 120 m M raffinose. In contrast, slices incubated in UW solution had a TTW equal to normal rat liver tissue. Furthermore, intact rabbit livers preserved with Eurocollins had an increase in the whole organ weight, while there was no weight change after preservation with the modified solution containing 120 m M raffinose (M120). In contrast, a pronounced weight loss was observed after preservation with UW solution. After cold storage, the livers were reperfused for 2 h at 38 °C in an isolated perfusion circuit (IPL) with an acellular perfusate. Bile flow was significantly greater in livers preserved in M120 than in those preserved with the conventional Eurocollins. However, the bile flow in the livers stored in M120 was inferior to that in the livers preserved with UW solution, which in turn was equal to that in control livers. The release of alanine-aspartate-amino-transferase into the perfusate was higher in livers preserved with Eurocollins, with or without modification, than in the livers preserved with UW solution. It is concluded that although the replacement of the glucose in Eurocollins with raffinose did indeed prevent hypothermia-induced cell swelling as evidenced by the absence of weight changes in the intact rabbit liver, these livers were still not as well preserved as those stored in UW. Therefore, the mechanism of action of UW is not solely based upon suppression of cell swelling nor upon the absence of glucose in this solution, but upon other factors which are discussed in this paper.