Toward Rapid Screening of Liver Grafts at the Operating Room Using Mid-infrared Spectroscopy

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Spectroscopy
• Transplantation Science

Background:

• Liver graft steatosis estimation is critical for transplantation success, as high fat levels increase graft failure risk.
• Current assessment methods (visual inspection, palpation, histology) are subjective and time-consuming.
• A need exists for rapid, in-situ diagnostic tools for pre-transplant graft evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate an attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopic method for in-situ liver steatosis assessment.
• To determine if ATR-FTIR can provide fast, quantitative lipid content analysis in human liver biopsies.
• To explore ATR-FTIR as an alternative to traditional pathological examination for liver grafts.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 20 human liver biopsies using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy.
• Comparison of ATR-FTIR data with histological analysis, biochemical lipid analysis, and lipidomic profiling (UPLC-ESI(+/-)TOFMS).
• Assessment of ATR-FTIR method's compatibility with operating room requirements.

Main Results:

• Strong correlations were observed between ATR-FTIR data and clinical/lipidomic information.
• ATR-FTIR effectively captured global liver lipid composition and quantified triacylglycerol content.
• The method demonstrated potential for in-situ grading of liver steatosis.

Conclusions:

• ATR-FTIR spectroscopy shows promise as a fast, quantitative tool for in-situ liver steatosis assessment in the operating room.
• This spectroscopic method could serve as a valuable alternative to subjective pathological examinations.
• Further validation is required, but results support ATR-FTIR's applicability in liver transplantation.