Heterotopic Transplant of an Isolated Rat Heart Preserved for 72 h in Perfluorocarbon with CO2

The inert fluid perfluorocarbon (PFC) has been used since about 1960 in liquid respiration and artificial blood for mammals. PFC has been used to successfully resuscitate tardigrades that had been dried and exposed to a high barometric pressure of 6,000 atmospheres. Next, scientists attempted to experimentally preserve organs that had been removed from animals, dried, and immersed in PFC. Since 1998 preservation and resuscitation experiments have been conducted with mammalian hearts using 2,015 rats and 70 pigs. Among those experiments, the maximum time after desiccation until successful resuscitation was 26 days for a rat heart and 37 days for a pig heart. However, these results could not be reproduced. Finally, in 2005, this laboratory demonstrated that a rat heart removed under 2 atmospheres pressure and a CO2 partial pressure of 400 hPa, followed by desiccation for 24 h, could be revived and heterotypically transplanted. Moreover, these results were reproducible. The preservation time can be extended to 72 h if, after immersing isolated rat hearts in PFC, they are dried by air exposure under a CO2 partial pressure of 100 hPa. The present report documents the resuscitation of this heart after 72 h of preservation followed by heterotrophic transplantation.