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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Normothermic Ex Vivo Pancreas Perfusion for the Preservation of Pancreas Allografts before Transplantation
Published on: July 27, 2022
Extending normothermic regional perfusion to pancreas recovery for clinical islet transplantation
Nicola Colucci1, Anastasios D Giannou1, Andrew R Gillooly1
1From the Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery (Colucci, Giannou, Gillooly, Chartier-Plante, Kim, Oldani, Segedi, Bleszynski); the Department of Surgery, the Ike Barber Human Islet Transplant Laboratory (Ao); the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. (Paty, Chaudhry, Leung).
Abstract:
SummaryNormothermic regional perfusion (NRP) is a strategy to improve organ quality in donation after circulatory death by restoring near-physiologic perfusion after circulatory arrest. Although its benefits are established in liver and kidney transplantation, its application to pancreas recovery and clinical islet transplantation is limited. Given the pancreas sensitivity to warm ischemia and the limited functional reserve inherent to islet transplantation, NRP may offer advantages over conventional cold recovery. We report our initial experience utilizing NRP for pancreas recovery in islet transplantation. Islet isolation yielded a high islet mass with excellent viability despite low donor body mass index, a factor traditionally associated with poor yield. Transplantation resulted in rapid improvement in glycemic control, reduced insulin requirements, resolution of hypoglycemia and favourable early graft function. This experience supports further evaluation of NRP to expand pancreas grafts utilization from donation after circulatory arrest and improve islet transplant outcomes.
