Time to Try Something New: Establishing Rat Models of Lung Transplantation Under ECMO Support

Abstract

<h3>Purpose</h3> Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has emerged as an important preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative life-support requisite in lung transplantation. Therefore, we aimed to develop rat models of lung transplantation under veno-arterial (VA) and veno-venous (VV) ECMO support. <h3>Methods</h3> Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 400-450g (recipients, n=10; donors, n=10) were used. The ECMO circuits were initiated by venous drainage from the femoral vein with extracorporeal oxygen exchange and returned to the blood circulation through the right carotid artery (VA-ECMO) or external jugular vein (VV-ECMO). Before ECMO implantation, 5ml heparinized blood from the donor rat was drawn into tubes. Simultaneously, donor lungs were obtained after pulmonary arterial perfusion with low potassium dextran lung preservation solution. ECMO-supported orthotopic left lung transplantation was performed by using cuff technique. Arterial blood gases were measured at designated intervals throughout the experiments. <h3>Results</h3> We found that VA- and VV-ECMO provided sufficient oxygenation to support a smooth left single lung transplantation procedure. The intraoperative hemodynamic and blood gas parameters were maintained stable. <h3>Conclusion</h3> In this study, we first established rat models of lung transplantation under VA and VV ECMO support. This model provides an efficient, economical, and feasible platform for studying lung transplantation with ECMO. This model can be preclinically applied to unravel significant insights in support of further translational models in large animal and human lung transplantation.