Supercooled kidneys have been transplanted into pigs in a “landmark achievement”

When it comes to organ donation, time is everything . As soon as an organ has been carefully removed from a donor’s body, it starts to deteriorate.

Surgeons have a matter of hours to get it into a recipient. Leave it too long and the organ will become unusable.

In most cases, organs will be kept on ice during that time, at around 4 °C (39 °F). They cannot be frozen—in previous attempts, ice has formed, causing all kinds of damage.

Matthew Powell Palm at Texas A&M University and his colleagues have an alternative solution—a device that allows organs to be cooled to -4 °C (25 °F) without forming any ice.

Now, in new research with pig organs, his team has shown that kidneys, at least, can be supercooled and preserved in the device for days.

Once rewarmed, the organs have been successfully transplanted into animals, and they seem to do better than organs kept on ice.

The work represents “a landmark achievement,” says Kevin Myer, president and CEO of LifeGift , an organ procurement organization based in Texas, who was not involved in the research.

Cooling organs Powell Palm hopes this approach could ultimately help ease the organ shortage crisis. Today, there are more than 104,000 peopl

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  Supercooled kidneys have been transplanted into pigs in a “landmark achievement”