Supercooled livers last longer

Researchers stored a handful of rat livers in temperatures below the freezing point of water in order to keep them fresh. This process connects to the developing method for treating donated organs. The new method has so far stretched the lasting time of an organ 3 times the average time an organ lasts in standard storage. The current standard preservative method for human transplant organs involves a certain liquid bath and the right amount of cold temperatures. Scientists have to also test this technique on larger animals since it is more difficult to safely cool bigger livers.

If this study is promising then it will benefit doctors immensely because they would have more time to look at different alternatives and have more procedure time. If someone from across the world needed a liver transplant then they could have a fresh preserved one from someone on the other side. They wouldn’t have to wait for one to appear in the country they’re in because the new storage method would allow a liver to withstand longer. Currently, livers can be stored up to 12 hours before they really need to be transplanted into a person. A liquid accommodating two non-toxic anti-freeze molecules is what researchers stored their rat livers in.  

Preserving organs in temperatures below freezing comes with a risk of allowing the tissue’s water to form ice. Cells in the biological tissue can be permanently damaged during the cooling-and-rewarming process. Researchers from the U.S and the Netherlands(work published in the journal Nature Medicine) stored rat livers in a certain liquid, and they used a special machine in order to help circulate the liquid throughout the liver before cooling and transplanting them. The livers were kept safe by the circulating anti-freeze as they they were brought down to -6 degrees celsius.