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Updated: Mar 10, 2026
Normothermic Ex Vivo Kidney Perfusion for the Preservation of Kidney Grafts prior to Transplantation
Published on: July 15, 2015
Alkaline Phosphatase Supplementation During Hypothermic and Normothermic Machine Perfusion Improves Metabolic
Thei S Steenvoorden1,2, Juan Miguel Tellez Garcia1,3, Joost W van der Heijden4
1Department of Internal Medicine Nephrology section, Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Background:
Kidney preservation techniques, such as hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP), improve graft outcomes in deceased-donor kidney transplantation by pausing graft metabolism and ameliorated ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) but do not completely eliminate injury. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) has been postulated to reduce IRI-induced kidney injury through the conversion of extracellular adenosine triphosphate into adenosine. This study aimed to evaluate whether ALP offers protection during deceased-donor kidney storage.
Methods:
Sixteen abattoir porcine kidneys (8 ALP and 8 with placebo) were procured after euthanization and exposed to 30 min of warm ischemia followed by 24 h of HMP or static cold storage (SCS). Reperfusion was partly simulated by 240 min of normothermic machine perfusion (NMP). Throughout NMP, we obtained functional, biochemical, and histological parameters.
Results:
Significantly lower urine production accompanied by lower perfusate pCO2 and higher pH were observed in the ALP group throughout NMP. At the end of NMP, intracellular ATP reserves and oxygen consumption were significantly higher in the ALP-treated group. Metabolomics analysis with principal component analysis demonstrated significant differences between the ALP and placebo groups in glycolysis and mitochondrial metabolites, along with a significantly attenuated rise in perfusate lactate dehydrogenase levels.
Conclusions:
ALP supplementation during HMP was associated with lower urine production and energetic stress, with a shift toward less metabolic dysfunction and graft injury by the end of NMP. Our findings suggest an improvement in the early metabolic incompetency that characterizes delayed graft function in humans. Further research should elucidate whether these findings result in enhancement of graft functionality after transplantation.
