XVIVO Perfusion AB

Targer Group

PhD student interested in organ perfusion specifically or basic physiology in general for an internship.

Background and purpose of the project

XVIVO is active in the area of ex vivo preservation and perfusion of organs intended for transplantation. With their innovative preservation and perfusion solutions and their oxygenated perfusion devices, XVIVO’s drive is to improve organ transplantation access and optimized recipient outcomes post transplantation.

The science of organ and tissue preservation and perfusion has been explored for at least the last 150 years. During this time basic concepts and more specific connections have been identified. Unfortunately, many of these fundamental truths, discovered decades or even a century ago have become forgotten to the modern science today. The purpose of this project is to rediscover some of these early discoveries to apply them to optimise organ preservation and perfusion of today. By rediscovering what has already been done instead of redoing fundamental experiments, we expect to increase speed and level of innovation while reducing need for animal experiments.

How to explore the subjects

This project aims to go deeper than the standard PubMed and internet searches. It requires actual archive digging at libraries to discover what is not found on the internet. Knowing that one discovery of information can lead to new questions, the questions below are suggested starting points that might lead to unexpected discoveries.

Questions for investigation

1. Oxygen is well known to be fundamental for most animal life as we know it. It is also known to be reactive and under certain circumstances even toxic to cells. Oxygen is also established to be both friend and foe during organ reperfusion after transplantation. Oxygenation during hypothermic organ perfusion has been shown to improve transplantation outcomes, but is there proof of optimal levels of oxygen during hypothermic (2-12oC) perfusion of isolated organs?
2. Dextran was originally identified by Louis Pasture as a byproduct in wine fermentation in 1861. In 1940-ties, Swedish researchers Anders Grönwall and Björn Ingelman discovered dextran’s properties to promote perfusion and its use as plasma substitute. This discovery later became the foundation of XVIVO’s organ preservation and perfusion solutions containing Dextran 40. Is there any documentation from these initial experiments in the 40-50-ties available?
3. Perfusion as such is considered fundamental not only for delivery of oxygen and nutrients to cells and removal of waste products, but also to maintain the endothelial cell architecture. We know this for normothermic conditions, but is there proof in relation to this also for hypothermic (2-12^oC) conditions?
4. Isolated organ perfusion was done already by Lindbergh and Carrel in the 1930-ties. At this time and in the decades to come, metabolic studies were frequent. Were there any specific metabolic pathways associated with hypothermic (2-12oC) preservation and/or perfusion established and were there any specific studies related to mitochondrial activity during hypothermic perfusion conditions?

Contact

Name: Anne-Li Sigvardsson

Email: annelie.sigvardsson@xvivogroup.com

https://www.xvivogroup.com/