Machine will turn fatty liver into healthy organ

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As Sunday Blick reported yesterday, a type of heart box opens up entirely new perspectives in transplant medicine. The new method, known as ex-vivo machine perfusion, already allows organs such as the heart or liver to remain functional longer than before and therefore be transplantable.

Franz Immer (55), heart surgeon and managing director of the Swisstransplant Foundation, knows why there are good days ahead in transplant medicine. Further application of the procedure is planned in the future, such as targeted healing of the removed organs outside the body before they are finally implanted. A prime example of this is the liver: “A pathological fatty liver stored outside of the body, where lab technicians provide the right blood flow and the right nutrients, can heal within a few days and eventually show normal, healthy values,” says Immer. And the healthier the organ, the greater the chance of a successful transplant. The procedure has already been successfully tested and is about to be implemented: “We hypothesize that in about two to three years, we will be able to transplant actively healed livers with ex-vivo machine perfusion.” And there is already a case when a pulmonary clot that led to the death of a young woman could be re-extracted from the removed organ, and the functional lungs successfully fulfilled their task in a new body eight hours later.

Greatly improved artificial hearts

But other reports of success are also promising: “The artificial hearts used today, often with metal-Goretex structures, have made a huge leap in quality,” says Immer. They significantly increase the time it takes a patient to bridge the transplant – sometimes even making a transplant unnecessary.

While Switzerland in particular has been very innovative in this field of medicine for a long time, other very interesting developments are also coming from other countries. For example, in the field of the so-called xenotransplantation – that is, the implantation of animal organs. Although the first transplant of a genetically modified pig heart in Baltimore, USA, in 2022, ended tragically, Immer says, “The Chinese and the US are way ahead in this area”: ​​the patient, who was already severely weakened before the operation, died a few weeks later. . According to the international expert press, the operation, which was successful at the beginning, is still seen as a milestone with great hopes for the future.

Long waiting list for donor kidneys in Switzerland

Meanwhile, Switzerland has a shortage of donor kidneys. Several thousand people in Germany have to undergo regular dialysis for kidney failure, a procedure in which blood is cleaned by an external machine. 850 people are on the waiting list for donor kidney. This is because of the side effects of some common anti-inflammatory pain relievers that damage the kidneys if taken long-term or in overdose.

Immer sees the biggest research gap in Switzerland in the development of new drugs: “As patents have disappeared, it is no longer worthwhile for pharmaceutical companies to invest in the development of new drugs. Both will be required: investment in both more research in transplant medicine and investment in drug development.”

Source : Blick