University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital

Marginal grafts, such as fatty livers, grafts from older donors, or livers retrieved after cardiac death (DCD) tolerate conventional, cold static storage only poorly. We developed a novel model of subnormothermic ex vivo liver perfusion for preservation, assessment, and repair of marginal liver grafts prior to transplantation.

Experimental animal research plays a pivotal role in the development of clinical transplantation practice. The porcine orthotopic liver transplantation model (OLTx) closely resembles human conditions and is frequently used in clinically oriented research. The following protocol contains all information for a reliable porcine OLTx model using an active porto-caval-jugular shunt.

The severe organ shortage has resulted in increased use of marginal kidney grafts for transplantation. This has triggered interest in alternative storage methods, since marginal grafts especially tolerate cold storage poorly. The technique of normothermic ex vivo kidney perfusion (NEVKP) represents a novel preservation method for kidney grafts prior to  transplantation.

Porcine models of organ transplantation provide an important platform to study mechanisms of organ preservation. This article describes a heterotopic porcine renal autotransplantation model, which allows investigating new approaches to improve the outcome of transplantation using marginal kidney grafts.

This article describes the protocol underlying electroencephalography (EEG) microstate analysis and omega complexity analysis, which are two reference-free EEG measures and highly valuable to explore the neural mechanisms of brain disorders.

The protocol presents utilization of the chemical biopsy approach followed by comprehensive metabolomic and lipidomic analysis for quality assessment of kidney grafts allocated for transplantation.

Normothermic ex vivo machine perfusion (NEVP) has scarcely been explored for the preservation of pancreas allografts. We present an innovative preservation technique for pancreas allografts before transplantation.

The protocol describes the surgical procurement and subsequent decellularization of vascularized porcine flaps by the perfusion of sodium dodecyl sulfate detergent through the flap vasculature in a customized perfusion bioreactor.

We describe the surgical technique and decellularization process for composite rat hindlimbs. Decellularization is conducted using low-concentration sodium dodecyl sulfate through an ex vivo machine perfusion system.

The video article summarizes the technique of pancreatectomy and pancreas allotransplantation in a porcine 3-day survival model with a step-by-step description of the method and emphasis on the surgical tips and tricks to deal with the precarious and delicate porcine visceral anatomy.

To obtain the best possible results, surgeons performing translational research experiments should be proficient at intubation and vascular line placement. This paper describes the techniques used by the Toronto Organ Preservation Laboratory to perform these procedures.