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Updated: Apr 18, 2026
Technique of Subnormothermic Ex Vivo Liver Perfusion for the Storage, Assessment, and Repair of Marginal Liver Grafts
Published on: August 13, 2014
Emerging concepts in liver graft preservation
Mohamed Bejaoui1, Eirini Pantazi1, Emma Folch-Puy1
1Mohamed Bejaoui, Eirini Pantazi, Emma Folch-Puy, Joan Roselló-Catafau, Experimental Hepatic Ischemia-Reperfusion Unit, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona-Spanish National Research Council, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas, 08036 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Improving liver transplantation requires better graft preservation. This review explores advanced static cold storage and machine perfusion (MP) techniques to enhance organ viability and expand the donor pool.
Area of Science:
- Hepatology
- Transplantation immunology
- Organ preservation science
Background:
- Growing demand for liver transplantation necessitates expanding the donor pool.
- Suboptimal liver grafts and evolving preservation strategies are critical considerations.
- Current methods face challenges in maintaining graft viability, especially for fatty liver grafts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review current and emerging liver graft preservation methods.
- To highlight advancements in static cold storage and machine perfusion (MP).
- To discuss future perspectives in optimizing liver graft viability.
Main Methods:
- Review of literature on static cold storage and machine perfusion (MP) techniques.
- Analysis of strategies for preserving fatty liver grafts.
- Discussion of different temperature ranges for MP (hypothermic, normothermic, subnormothermic).
- Exploration of regenerative medicine applications in graft preservation.
Main Results:
- Static cold storage is enhanced by supplementing preservation solutions with additives for fatty liver grafts.
- Effective graft washout post-static cold preservation is crucial.
- Machine perfusion (MP) offers dynamic preservation at various temperatures (4°C, 37°C, 20°C-25°C).
- Regenerative medicine presents emerging applications for improving graft preservation.
Conclusions:
- Optimizing static cold storage and dynamic machine perfusion (MP) is key to improving liver graft viability.
- Advanced preservation strategies are essential for meeting the demand for liver transplantation.
- Future research should focus on integrating regenerative medicine and refining MP techniques.
