Organ freezing breakthrough could mean hundreds more lives are saved: Scientists successfully warm up heart valves meaning hospitals could soon store organs for transplants Transplant patients currently have a narrow window to get into theatre It is a race against time as organs can only be kept on ice for four hours It is estimated that almost two-thirds of hearts and lungs are wasted every year A scientific breakthrough could save hundreds of lives by allowing hospitals to store organs for transplant. For the first time scientists have successfully warmed up frozen heart valves, which could lead to an organ bank in a decade. Transplant patients currently have a narrow window, as ambulances speed to reach them with organs which can only be kept on ice for four hours. It is estimated that almost two-thirds of hearts and lungs are wasted every year. But researchers at the University of Minnesota may have solved the problem after ‘re-warming’ cryo-preserved animal heart valves and tissue. Lead author Dr John Bischof said: ‘This is the first time that anyone has been able to scale up to a larger biological system and demonstrate successful, fast, and uniform warming of hundreds of degrees Celsius per minute of preserved tissue without damaging the tissue.’ A scientific breakthrough could save hundreds of lives by allowing hospitals to store organs for transplant The scientists say they are ‘cautiously hopeful’ the technique could work to save a human kidney or heart. There are currently 6,500 people in Britain on the list for a transplant, with around 400 a year dying while they wait. Dr Bischof added: ‘These results are very exciting and could have a huge societal benefit if we could someday bank organs for transplant.’ The results have implications for cryogenics, where people have their bodies frozen after death in the hope of being brought back in the future. The researchers say this will not be possible within the next century and the chances of bringing people back to life is ‘remote’. But it is an important step forward, as it has been suggested that if only half of unused organs were successfully transplanted, transplant waiting lists could be eliminated within two years. The technology to preserve organs using chemicals similar to antifreeze has been around since the 1980s. Animal kidneys can be cooled to an ice-free glassy state using very low temperatures between -160 and -196 degrees Celsius. But the biggest problem has been with the rewarming, which often leaves tissues massively damaged and useless for transplantation. Transplant patients currently have a narrow window, as ambulances speed to reach them with organs which can only be kept on ice for four hours The US scientists used silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles, which act as tiny heaters around tissue when they are activated using non-invasive electromagnetic waves. The heating rates of 100 to 200 degrees Celsius per minute, are 10 to 100 times faster than previous methods. After rewarming, tests showed that none of the tissues displayed signs of harm, unlike control samples rewarmed slowly over ice or those using convection heating. The researchers were also able to successfully wash away the iron oxide nanoparticles from the sample. Human trials with skin and muscle are planned within 18 months and then the technology could be trialled on parts of a human face and hands. The research is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Co-author Dr Kelvin Brockbank said: ‘I’ll have to say that the cryonicist movement will probably distort the importance of this to being able to preserve whole human bodies quite quickly. ‘However, I believe that even if we could preserve the whole body, the chances that the neural pathways, which have been established during life, will be maintained during and after cryopreservation are probably remote, at this point. ‘And so I don’t believe that we will be seeing success for whole bodies within the next 100 years.’ Currently there are over 6,500 people in the UK on the transplant waiting list and three people die every day waiting for an organ. Source
