新装置可延长心脏移植前的存活时间

新装置可延长心脏移植前的存活时间

Organ transplantations face many hurdles – a major one being time. From the moment an organ is taken out of a donor and put into ice, the cells in that organ begin to die. This race against time is more often than not lost. The issue is particularly problematic for hearts, with around 70 percent of viable hearts failing to make it into a recipient in time.

器官移植面临许多障碍——时间是一个主要障碍。从器官从供体中取出并放入冰中的那一刻起，器官中的细胞就开始死亡。这场与时间的赛跑往往是失败的。这个问题对心脏来说尤其有问题，大约70%的可存活心脏无法及时转化为受体。

"The standard of care for heart preservation and transportation is a cooler with a limited preservation time of 4 hours from the time the heart is cross-clamped to the time it reaches the recipient patient. Ischemia (restriction of blood supply to the tissue, causing a lack of oxygen to the tissue, and resulting in cell death) begins immediately after the heart is disconnected from the body. Thus the heart has to be transported immediately to the recipient within the 4-hour period," lead author Dr Rafael Veraza, from the University of Texas Health at San Antonio, told IFLScience.

“心脏保存和运输的护理标准是一个冷却器，保存时间从心脏交叉夹持到到达受者患者的时间限定为4小时。缺血(组织供血受限，组织缺氧，导致细胞死亡)在心脏与身体断开后立即开始。因此，心脏必须在4小时内被立即运送到接受者体内。”来自圣安东尼奥德克萨斯大学健康中心的主要作者Rafael Veraza博士告诉IFLScience。

"In effect, by limiting the time to 4 hours, the geographical location where hearts can be matched to the proper recipient, is limited. With a device that can extend the preservation time beyond 4 hours up to 24 hours, it extends the geographic location where hearts can be transported to the proper recipient."

“实际上，通过将时间限制在4小时内，心脏与适配者的地理位置将非常有限。通过一种可以将保存时间延长4小时到24小时的设备，它可以增加将心脏运送到合适接受者的地理位置。”

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Seattle, the team presented the results from their new approach that might just slow down the clock. The team announced that their preservation device shows no damage to the heart muscle cells, called cardiomyocytes, after 24 hours in the machine. The tech, called ULiSSES™ (Universal Limb/organ Stasis System for Extended Storage), uses perfusion to keep the cells fed and oxygenated. This delays cell death, which is key to extending the transplant clock.

在西雅图举行的美国科学促进协会(AAAS)会议上，研究小组展示了他们新方法的结果，这种方法可能会使时间变慢。研究小组宣布，他们的保存设备在机器中放置24小时后，对心肌细胞(称为心肌细胞)没有损伤。这项叫做尤利斯™ (通用肢体/器官停滞系统，用于长期储存)的技术，利用灌注保持细胞供氧。这延缓了细胞死亡，这是延长移植时间的关键。

The team is currently investigating the limitations of such a device as well as if a heart that has been preserved in ice for one hour and then placed in the device remains viable for the full 24-hour period. Perfusion as a method has recently been used in extending the viability of livers, and investigations are underway to find out more about the efficacies of these transplants in humans. Still, more studies are needed to test the device's efficacy on human hearts, which will require official approvals.

研究小组目前正在调查这种装置的局限性，以及一颗在冰中保存了一个小时，然后放入装置的心脏是否在整个24小时内都是可行的。灌注作为一种方法最近被用于延长肝脏的生存能力，目前正在进行调查，以进一步了解这些移植在人类中的效果。不过，还需要更多的研究来测试这种设备对人类心脏的功效，这需要官方的批准。

In the United States, 114,000 people are currently on the waiting lists for a lifesaving transplant, with a new name added every 10 minutes. On average, the lack of available viable organs costs the lives of 20 people every day.

在美国，目前有11.4万人在等待一项挽救生命的移植手术，每10分钟就会增加一个新名字。平均而言，缺乏可用的可存活器官每天导致20人死亡。