Introduction
Patients acquire organs from donors when theirs are damaged and/or absent. The matter falls under the field of regenerative medicine and it has been critical in prolonging the lives of millions of individuals across the world (Fox and Swazey 2). After organs are removed from donors, they require to be preserved in the right conditions so that they can retain their physiological properties (Kaplan, Burkhart, and Lakkis 45). It is important to underscore that tissues and organs could experience necrosis if effective preservation methods are not utilized (Fox and Swazey 65). Thus, various preservation methods have been developed to help preserve organs (Gabrielli, Layon, and Yu 30). This paper focuses on discussing the following three methods of preservation: Lowering temperature, HMP, and oxygen persufflation.
Lowering temperature
Lowering the temperature of donated tissues and organs results in a state of hypothermia, which is essential in limiting the number of metabolic activities. Reduced metabolism implies that tissues would not experience necrosis due to the diminishing of oxygen and accumulation of carbon dioxide. In addition to suppressing rates of metabolism, low temperatures lead to disruption of metabolic pathways that are involved in energy supplies. It has been shown that hypothermia could activate defense mechanisms that are critical to allow preserved tissues to return to their normal physiologic states when they are aroused.
About this approach, blood flow is disrupted during the entire period of preservation. The length of time a tissue would be available for transplantation would range from hours to a few months. In addition, the method can be used to store both small and large human tissues.
HMP preservation method
This method makes the use of a perfusion machine that maintains the supply of oxygen to tissues, thereby retaining their physiological activities. The main goal of the strategy is to prolong preservation time and improve the quality of organ transplants (Gabrielli et al. 77). It is critical to underscore that the quality of tissues correlates with the level of healthcare outcomes in patients undergoing transplantation.
HMP method is mainly used to preserve harvested kidneys. Using the approach, kidneys can be preserved for a period of up to 72 hours. The size of tissue that can be maintained by the strategy can be both small and large. For example, both human and canine kidneys have shown good rates of efficacy. Blood flow occurs to some extent, and this is important to ensure that renal functions are perfect in harvested tissues (Gabrielli et al. 87).
Oxygen persufflation
This is a method that is adopted to preserve body organs by maintaining both metabolic activities and blood flow. Specifically, oxygen is passed through the surfaces of organs from where it penetrates tissues. In this context, small openings in the organ are essential to the flow of the gas (Gabrielli et al. 102). Although the approach limits rates of metabolism, physiological activities occur due to the supply of oxygen and elimination of carbon dioxide. The prolonged preservation period associated with this method is a few days. It is worth noting that it can be applied to both small and large organs. For example, it has shown excellent results with canine and adult human kidneys (Fox and Swazey 129).
Conclusion
Organ/tissue preservation is key to maintaining physiological properties, which would help patients undergoing organ transplantation to achieve better health outcomes. All the three methods of perseveration discussed in this paper focus on reducing rates of metabolism. Reduced metabolism would require relatively low oxygen and other physiological needs.
Works Cited
Fox, Renée, and Judith Swazey. Spare parts: organ Replacement in American society. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2013. Print.
Gabrielli, Andrea, Joseph Layon, and Mihae Yu, eds. Civetta, Taylor, & Kirby’s Critical Care. Philadelphia, PA Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009. Print.
Kaplan, Bruce, Gilbert Burkhart, and Fadi Lakkis, eds. Immunotherapy in Transplantation. Boston, MA: Blackwell Publishing., 2012. Print.