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).


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