Revolutionary Discovery: Donor Liver Can Now Be Preserved For 27 Hours

This is seen as the invention of the decade which is going to save a million lives. This is made possible with the chemical cocktail that scientists have made to make the liver last longer. Earlier the donor liver could be stored for 9 hours only but with this discovery, it can be preserved for 27 hours straight. This gives a ray of hope to people who are awaiting their liver transplantation.

Preservation of human livers is only possible at sub-zero temperatures without letting them freeze or else they get destructed. After this research, it has become possible to keep the liver functioning for up to 27 hours using a supercooling chemical.

This discovery is no less than a blessing for people with liver failure as now their timely treatment is possible. Thousands of people die every month due to organ shortage as most of the times, the organs fail to reach on time. Preserving livers would make it possible for people to get transplantation done on time. Researchers are working to get the same done for other organs as well.

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Dr Shannon Tessie from Harvard Medical School and co-author of this study said, “A lot of times when an organ becomes available, there may not be a good match nearby, so in terms of allocation, when you add that extra amount of time that means you can search a wider distance which means you have a better chance of not only finding a good match but an excellent match.”

“This means that you have less organ discard, get more organs to recipients, and those organs are better matched to the recipients, meaning that organ can have a longer life within the recipient,' Tessier added.

With the increase in window time, the demand for liver transplant would also increase as people would want to take advantage of this facility. For those who don’t know, livers are stored at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius but this temperature is insufficient to keep them preserved for longer. This chemical cocktail is made using these key ingredients: Glycerol, 3-OMG and PEG which help preserve the liver.

This discovery is a boon for many people. It would also reduce the cases of death due to organ shortage or untimely transplants.

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