Preprint Study Reports Major Milestone in Preserving Transplant Kidneys

“Ten years ago … I can’t say we had great expectations that it would actually work,” says Eric Finger, a transplant surgeon at the University of Minnesota who co-led the study. “After I did the last transplant, I walked out of the room and said, ‘This is a big deal.’”

The study was shared on the bioRxiv preprint server and has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The kidneys used in the research are not perfect, and scientists have not yet proved that they can sustain life over long periods. However, other officials in the field say the results represent an important milestone in organ preservation and transplantation.

“Thank God someone actually did it in one organ and proved it works,” says Peter Kilbride, a cryobiologist and co-founder of Kairos, a company focused on improving funding for cryonics research. Kilbride was not involved in the study. “For years, people have been trying and failing to get to this point. Finally, we have achieved this breakthrough.”

“Their work is amazing and will allow us to truly preserve organs indefinitely,” said Korkut Uygun, a biomedical engineer and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Uygun was also not involved in the research. “These are revolutionary times for transplantation.”

Long-Term Organ Preservation Could Buy Time

Each year, tens of thousands of organ transplants are performed in the United States alone. These procedures are believed to have saved 2 million years of life over the past 25 years. Despite that progress, organ transplantation still faces significant challenges.

One of the biggest problems is the shortage of available organs. Even when an organ becomes available, it can be difficult to deliver it to a suitable recipient within 24 to 36 hours—the current limit for preserving human organs.

Organ transplant recipients must also take immune-suppressing medications for the rest of their lives. These drugs help prevent the body from rejecting the new organ, but they can cause side effects and increase the risk of infection and cancer.

The ability to preserve organs for much longer periods could help address these challenges. Doctors would have more time to match organs with recipients, while preparing recipients and their immune systems in advance might also reduce the risk of organ rejection.