EVALUATION OF A NEW SOLUTION CONTAINING TREHALOSE FOR 20-HOUR CANINE LUNG PRESERVATION

We examined the efficacy of two new preservation solutions containing trehalose - an extracellular type (ET-K) of solution and an intracellu lar type (IT-K) of solution - in relation to that of Euro-Collins (EC) solution in 20-h canine lung preservation. Canine lungs were flushed with one of the three solutions (n = 5 for each solution) after pretre atment with PGE(1) (20 mu g/kg) and were stored for 20 h at 4 degrees C. The left lungs were transplanted and evaluated to 6 h post transpla nt. In the ET-K group, the arterial oxygen tension after reperfusion w as significantly higher than in the IT-K and EC groups. The pulmonary vascular resistance, wet/dry weight ratio, and histological evaluation of each transplanted lung in the ET-K group were also better than in the IT-K and EC groups. This indicates that ET-K solution is useful fo r 20-h preservation of canine lung grafts.