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Improved organ recovery after oxygen deprivation

A modified method for delivering oxygen to the whole body can restore function in pig organs one hour after the animals have died. The achievement points to ways to improve transplants and the treatment of strokes and heart attacks.
  1. Robert J. Porte

    1. Robert J. Porte is in the Department of Surgery, Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation section, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700 RB Groningen, the Netherlands.

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Without oxygen, mammalian cells die. Paradoxically, restoring oxygen to cells that have been deprived of it also causes stress and damage — a phenomenon called reperfusion or reoxygenation injury1. For decades, scientists have been searching for strategies to protect cells and organs against the detrimental effects of oxygen deprivation and reintroduction that can occur following stroke, heart attack or the cessation of breathing. Writing in Nature, Andrijevic et al.2 describe a system called OrganEx that enables oxygen to be recirculated throughout a pig’s body, preserving cells and organs an hour after a cardiac arrest.

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Nature 608, 273-274 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01995-3

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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