The effect of human organ preservation and albumin flush solution on in vitro cell metabolic activity

In liver transplantation, the organ during the recipient's operation is tra ditionally flushed with 4.5% of human albumin solution to wash away the pot assium-rich University of Wisconsin (UW) solution. It has been argued wheth er albumin could be useful at this stage. We used a new simple non-toxic as say to determine cell viability in vitro. Alamar Blue incorporates a redox indicator which changes colour from blue ( oxidised form) to magenta (reduced form) in response to metabolic activity. Cultured human hepatocyte and HUVEC cell lines were exposed for 3, 6, 12 o r 24 hours to plain medium, UW solution, human albumin 4.5% solution, UW-co ntaining effluents before and after preservation as well as albumin flushes from different transplantation cases. After addition of Alamar Blue the op tical density was measured at 570 nm and the background measured at 600 nm was subtracted. The studies showed a significantly lower metabolic rate of the cells expose d to albumin and albumin-containing flushes at all time periods, even after a short exposure such as 3 hours (p < 0.001). On the other hand, there was no significant difference of growth and metabolic activity rate between ce lls exposed to UW solution, different UW-containing flushes and medium for up to 12 hours. In conclusion, human albumin is a very poor solution for cell maintenance. In contrast, UW solution has comparable results with the full growth medium for up to 12 hours of exposure.