Abstract
The effects of each type of machine perfusion preservation (MP) of liver grafts donated after cardiac death on the bile canaliculi of hepatocytes remain unclear. We analyzed the intracellular three-dimensional ultrastructure of the bile canaliculi and hepatocyte endomembrane systems in porcine liver grafts after warm ischemia followed by successive MP with modified University of Wisconsin gluconate solution. Transmission and osmium-maceration scanning electron microscopy revealed that lumen volume of the bile canaliculi decreased after warm ischemia. In liver grafts preserved by hypothermic MP condition, bile canaliculi tended to recover in terms of lumen volume, while their microvilli regressed. In contrast, midthermic MP condition preserved the functional form of the microvilli of the bile canaliculi. Machine perfusion preservation potentially restored the bile canaliculus lumen and alleviated the cessation of cellular endocrine processes due to warm ischemia. In addition, midthermic MP condition prevented the retraction of the microvilli of bile canaliculi, suggesting further mitigation of the damage of the bile canaliculi.
Highlights
The shortage of brain dead donors for liver transplantation is a serious problem worldwide [1]
We evaluated the ultrastructural changes in the bile canaliculi and hepatocytes around them at four hours after hypothermic MP (HMP) or midthermic MP (MMP) using OM-SEM and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
These findings showed that the details and three-dimensional conformation of the bile canaliculi and the related intracellular components could be visualized by OM-SEM with complementary TEM observation
Summary
The shortage of brain dead donors for liver transplantation is a serious problem worldwide [1]. A high risk of acute and chronic rejection, including ischemic bile duct damage, and biliary complications has been reported [5]; the development of liver graft preservation methods after circulatory arrest is required to overcome these problems [1]. No.17K10503 of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to N.M. URL of the funder’s website: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. All of the authors received no salary from any funder of this research
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