Improved survival of orthotopic liver allograft in swine by addition of trophic factors to University of Wisconsin solution

Serum-free preservation media such as University of Wisconsin (UW) may cause tissue damage through trophic factor (TF) deprivation. This study evaluated whether the addition of TFs to UW solution improves liver graft quality after extended cold preservation time in pigs. UW solution was supplemented with epidermal growth factor, insulin-like growth factor-1, nerve growth factor-β, bactenecin, and substance P to create TF-supplemented (TFS) UW. Orthotopic liver transplantation was performed after 18 hr of static cold storage at 4°C in UW (n=7) or TFS-UW (n=7) solution. Recipients of grafts preserved with TFS-UW demonstrated significantly better 5-day survival (57%) than those preserved with UW alone (14%) (P<0.05). Adenosine triphosphate content in grafts preserved in TFS-UW was significantly higher than in grafts preserved in UW (17.4±5.0 vs. 4.8±1.2 nmol/mg protein, respectively) (P<0.05). This study showed that the addition of TFs to UW solution allowed a significant extension of cold ischemic time in pigs.