Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2026
An Efficient Sieving Method to Isolate Intact Glomeruli from Adult Rat Kidney
Published on: November 1, 2018
Deep-supercooling Preservation for Rat Kidneys
Yunkai Li1,2, Zhijie Li1,2, Lanlan Peng1,2
1The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Background:
The critical shortage of transplantable organs and suboptimal preservation efficacy of static cold storage (SCS)-limited to 24-h kidney preservation at 4 °C-necessitate transformative technological solutions. This study pioneers the application of deep-supercooling (DSC) for ice-free rat kidney preservation at -10 °C, aiming to systematically compare DSC's efficacy against conventional SCS and establish its maximum viable preservation window.
Methods:
Rat kidneys underwent preservation via SCS (4 °C) or DSC (-10 °C) for 24, 96, or 168 h, with subset groups subjected to normothermic reperfusion. Comprehensive biomarker profiling was performed on preservation solutions, perfusate, urine, and renal tissues to assess functional, metabolic, and structural integrity.
Results:
DSC reliably maintained stable supercooled preservation at -10 °C. After 24-h DSC storage, kidneys exhibited superior functional recovery versus SCS controls, demonstrating enhanced glomerular filtration (2.1-fold elevated creatinine clearance), optimized energy homeostasis (57% higher ATP level), and attenuated ischemic injury (39% lower injury score). Remarkably, 96-h DSC preservation achieved outcomes at least comparable to 24-h SCS, effectively quadrupling the functional preservation window.
Conclusions:
DSC represents a paradigm-shifting advancement in renal preservation, extending viable storage duration by 4-fold while improving graft quality compared with SCS. This technique's operational simplicity position it as a clinically translatable solution to expand donor organ utilization.
