COMPARISON OF UNIVERSITY-OF-WISCONSIN AND UNIVERSITY-OF-PITTSBURGH SOLUTIONS FOR HEART-TRANSPLANTATION

The effectiveness of University of Wisconsin (UW) and University of Pi ttsburgh (UP) solutions for the preservation of rat hearts was compare d. Lewis rat hearts were preserved with UW (group A, n = 45) or UP (gr oup B, n = 45) solution for 0 or 24 h and then transplanted heterotopi cally into the recipients' abdomen. Ten recipients in each group were observed to obtain 1-week graft survival rates. Tissue water content a nd tissue content of adenine nucleotides were measured 2 h after trans plantation in six grafts from each group. Six hearts preserved for 0 h and seven hearts preserved for 24 h were taken from each group 24 h a fter grafting for histopathology. The 1-week graft survival rates of g roups A24 and B24 were 60% and 10%, respectively, In the 24-h preserve d grafts, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and energy charge [(ATP + adeno sine diphosphate/2)/(ATP + adenosine diphosphate + adenosine monophosp hate)] of groups A and B were 0.972 +/- 0.165 and 0.200 +/- 0.123 mg/g wet tissue (P < 0.05) and 74.4% and 61.1% (P < 0.05), respectively, T he tissue water content of group A24 was 71.7%, whereas that of group B24 was 74.1% (P < 0.05). Histopathology revealed more severe muscle e dema and necrosis and infiltration of polymorphonuclear cells in group B24 than in group A24. We conclude that UW solution is more appropria te for rat heart preservation than UP solution.