# Expanding the Liver Transplant Organ Pool through Ex Vivo Liver Perfusion

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $551,721

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
Liver transplantation provides life saving treatment for patients with end-stage liver disease. However, the
potential of this therapy is limited by an inadequate supply of deceased donor livers to treat all those who could
benefit. This has resulted in narrow indications for liver transplantation, high waiting list mortality, and increased
use of marginal organs that worsen post transplant survival rates and increase costs. We believe that
pretransplant ex vivo donor liver perfusion (EVLP) has unparalled potential to alter this paradigm.
Unlike the current standard liver preservation by static cold storage (SCS) in which incompletely arrested
metabolic activity under anoxic conditions leads to gradual exhaustion of cellular energy stores and progressive
deterioration of graft quality, under EVLP, cellular aerobic respiration is restored by oxygenated perfusion
allowing normal metabolic processes to ensue ex vivo. This will permit pretransplant recovery for grafts injured
by warm ischemia (such as those from DCD donors), diagnosis of grafts suitable from those nonsuitable for
transplant and a marked net expansion of the organ pool for transplantation.
In this proposed project, we seek to define the most appropriate and effective application of EVLP to liver
transplants. We will investigate the boundaries of organ injury that allows recovery by EVLP and will delineate
the ideal parameters of liver perfusion. These studies will also provide a wealth of data to inform future designed
to identify multi parameter discriminators of organ suitability for transplantation. In the final aim of of this project,
we utilize the information gained in Aims I and II to conduct a randomized comparison of SCS and EVLP using
DCD livers as a prelude to a clinical trial. Collectively, these studies will generate data critically necessary in
optimal development of the field of ex vivo liver perfusion.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9969185
- **Project number:** 5R01DK107875-05
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** JAMES FRANCIS MARKMANN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $551,721
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-07-10 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9969185

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9969185, Expanding the Liver Transplant Organ Pool through Ex Vivo Liver Perfusion (5R01DK107875-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9969185. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*