X-Message-Number: 5637 Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 19:03:18 +0100 (MET) From: Eugene Leitl <> Subject: successfult whole organ suspension An odd bit of news Klaus Reinhard just sent me; its probably well known on CryoNet already, but still... "Scientist freeze, revive heart for later transplant" By Donna Bryson, Assotiated Press (Houston Chronicle Monday, Oct. 16, 1995). Johannesburg, South Africa. -- A South African research team seeking a cheap, long-term way of storing transplant organs has frozen a rat heart and revived it, the team's supervisor says. Sperm and eggs are frozen for storage, as are heart valves. But this would be the first time a whole organ had been restored after be- ing subjected to low temperatures in liquid nitrogen. Dirk du Plessis, head of heart surgery at Pretoria's H.F. Verwo- erd Hospital, said this week that his team, in a pilot test, froze a rat heart to 321 degrees below zero, then restored it to beating. Success in such research could eventually allow organs to be stored for long periods. Instead of a desperate rush to match kidneys or lungs from recently deceased donors to patients in need, doctors would simply turn to a bank. The research also could trans- form the way tissue banks operate, ending the need for high-tech re- frigerators and other costly equip- ment now used to store organs, Du Plessis said. Dr. Ken Diller, president of the U.S.-based Society for Cryobiology, said researchers worldwide have been pursuing a method for freez- ing organs but have found very limited success. Amopng what he said were numerous problems to be solved was the damaging effect freezing has on tissue. Du Plessis said his researchers protected the tissue by developing a protective fluid. He said that before freezing, the rat heart was saturated with a fluid perfected over the past two years by one of his technicians. Du Plessis said only pilot studies on pig and rat tissue had been conducted so far, but "provisional results ... loop very promising". "We've got to do our experiments now", he said. "Until then, we won't be abnle to say much more". Gregory Fahy of the Naval Medi- cal Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., who had pursued similiar re- search for 15 years, said the South Africans will have scored "a major, major achievement" if their experi- ment can be repeated. "Nothing like this has ever really been done before", Fahy aid. "It kind of flies in the face of everyone else's experience. But we always have to be prepared for surprises. I would certainly congratulate them if they can reproduce these re- sults." Because du Plessis' initial re- search was on animal hearts, there had been speculation it could lead to human hearts being stored for transplant. But du Plessis said such a technique was "somewhere in the future, if it ever happens". At present, hearts have to be transplanted within hours of being taken from a donor. Du Plessis said his preservation team used hearts because, unlike other organs, it is fairly easy to determine whether thexy have been restored to working order. -- Eugene (facsimile transcript of the xerox). Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5637