The Liver4Life research team published details of its world first in the renowned scientific journal, Nature Biotechnology, on 31 May 2022: for the first time, a damaged human liver has been stored outside of a body for three days and then implanted. Over this period, the donor liver was connected to a perfusion machine developed by the team, where it was treated with various drugs, and the recovered organ then implanted into a cancer patient. One year later, the patient has accepted the liver and is doing well, as was reported in a press release.
Liver4Life is a project under the umbrella of the Wyss Zurich Translational Center. It brings together the highly specialized technical expertise and biomedical knowledge of around ten medical professionals, biologists and engineers. They are based at University Hospital Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and the University of Zurich (UZH).
Until now, commercially available perfusion machines only allowed for organs to be stored conventionally on ice for 12 hours. The machine developed by the team mimics the human body as accurately as possible. The time gained allows lengthy laboratory or tissue tests to be carried out without time pressure. In this way, the team can prepare the damaged liver originally not approved for transplantation with various drugs and transform it into a good human organ.
“Our therapy shows that by treating livers in the perfusion machine, it is possible to alleviate the lack of functioning human organs and save lives,” explains Prof. Pierre-Alain Clavien, Director of the Department of Visceral Surgery and Transplantation at the University Hospital Zurich.
