If you are interested in joining this project, please see our available positions at:
https://www.uni-due.de/grk2989/opportunities.php

Severe shortage of donor organs led to the increased use of extended criteria donor organs. Ex vivo machine perfusion of donor organs allows for quality assessment before transplant and for better regeneration of marginal hearts than that achieved by the gold standard static cold storage. To increase the use of machine perfusion (actually limited by donor blood availability), machine perfusion requires adapted perfusion protocols and solutions to satisfy needs of cellular metabolism and tissue protection.

To reduce repAMI by replacing donor blood in pig heart machine perfusion with a tailored perfusate containing perfluorocarbon-based artificial oxygen carriers (PFCOC). 

The specific objectives are:  

• Designing a PFCOC-based perfusate optimized for heart tissue 
• Assessing hemodynamics, biochemistry & structural changes after repAMI injury and machine perfusion with blood/ PFCOC-based vs. cold storage
• Decreasing repAMI injury by using machine perfusion with tailored PFCOC-based perfusate

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Langendorff-heart + perfluorocarbon-based oxygen carriers (PFCOC)
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Clinical repAMI model / machine perfusion prior to heart transplantation
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Principal Investigators

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