Efficacy of PGI2 analog in preventing ischemia reperfusion damage of liver grafts from living donors.

In living-related transplantation, warm ischemia/reperfusion damage (IRD) of liver grafts is inevitable during harvesting. In this study, we investigated the effects of prostacyclin (PGI2) on IRD of liver grafts in the rat liver transplant model. Donor rats underwent 30-min warm ischemia of part of the liver (right lateral and medial lobes). After 10 min of reflow, the ischemic partial livers were flushed with Ringer's lactate and immediately transplanted into untreated recipients. Donor animals were divided into two groups: group I received vehicle, and group II received PGI2 analog OP-41483 (OP, 500 ng/kg per min, i. v.) during the donor operation. One-week survival was studied and cellular adenine nucleotide levels of donor livers were assayed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Donor treatment with PGI2 analog group II significantly improved 1-week survival (86%), in comparison with the controls group I (25%). The levels of total adenine nucleotides (TAN, micromol/g dry wt) of the grafts just before implantation were well maintained by PGI2 treatment (12.22), as compared with the controls (10.36). In summary, PGI2 treatment of the donor maintained high energy metabolism of the liver graft after IRD and improved the survival of recipients after transplantation. Our study suggested that PGI2 treatment of donors improves viability in liver grafts from living donors thus and increases graft availability for transplantation.