A validated technique for the analysis of biliary bile acid secretion in donor livers prior to transplantation

Many parameters currently used for the pre-transplant assessment of liver allografts, are not reliable enough in predicting the likelihood of early graft dysfunction or non-function. It is generally accepted that bile secretion is a sign of hepatic function post-transplant and that bile flow shows a close linear relationship to the secretion of bile acids ("apparent choleretic activity"). We have studied bile flow, biliary bile acid concentrations and composition and measured apparent choleretic activity from hepatic bile collected with a new technique under controlled conditions at the time of retrieval from 18 donor livers. More than three samples were collected from each of 13 donors and a total of 65 samples of hepatic bile were analysed. Of these, ten showed typical apparent choleretic activity with a positive slope in the regression line analysis (correlation coefficient of 0.9), validating our collection technique.