New approach could address liver supply shortage

A research team led by QSI RENU member Satish Nadig has received a $200,000 grant from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) Foundation to test an innovative approach that could double the supply of liver tissue that is suitable for transplantation. By leveraging machine perfusion technology and the liver’s natural ability to regenerate, the scientists aim to use a single liver to potentially save two lives.

There are approximately 9,000 patients in the United States currently on the waitlist for a new liver, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), and more than 1,500 die each year waiting for a transplant.

Nadig and colleagues aim to address this supply shortage by investigating whether they can remove a small section of a donated liver and use machine perfusion technology and a cocktail of growth factors to essentially grow another organ outside the body that is large enough to carry out its needed functions. That “new” liver could then be used in a procedure, while the remaining portion of the original liver could be transplanted into another patient — treating two individuals with the same organ.

“If successful, our study would have a transformative impact on the field, as no one has been able to generate a fully functioning liver ex vivo,” said Nadig, Chief of Organ Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine. “We are eager to pursue this work and are grateful to the ASTS Foundation for supporting it, as it could represent a significant advance in regenerative medicine and solve the supply-and-demand problem that is a constant issue in liver transplantation.” 

The proposed work, titled “Liver Regeneration Using Normothermic Machine Perfusion: New Perspectives on Old Problems,” will receive funding for two years through the ASTS-TransMedics Faculty Perfusion Grant program.

Nadig is also the Edward G. Elcock Professor of Surgical Research and a Professor Microbiology-Immunology and Pediatrics at Feinberg. He directs the Comprehensive Transplant Center and runs the Comprehensive Transplant Immunobiology Laboratory.