Objective: Improvement of long-term heart preservation methods would potentially increase the donor pool and improve survival. We compared the efficacies of the University of Wisconsin (UW) and Celsior solutions on ventricular and endothelial functions after 24-h preservation.
Methods: We used an isolated heart preparation perfused with blood. The heart was excised from a rabbit, stored for 24 h in the UW or Celsior solution, and then perfused with blood from a support-rabbit. We evaluated cardiac output and coronary endothelial function.
Results: The Frank-Starling curve showed a significant left and upward shift in the UW group compared with that in the Celsior group (p<0.01). There were no significant differences between the groups for the coronary blood flow in response to sodium nitroprusside or acetylcholine. The serum creatine kinase MB level after reperfusion was significantly lower in the UW group than in the Celsior group (10.7+/-1.4 ng/mL vs 30.4+/-5.4 ng/mL, p<0.01), whereas lipid peroxide levels did not differ significantly between the two groups.
Conclusions: The UW group showed better left ventricular function than the Celsior group, indicating that the UW solution has greater potential for long-term preservation than Celsior solution.