Effectivity of Freshly Prepared or Refreshed Solutions for Heart Preservation Versus Commercial Eurocollins, Bretschneiderʼs Htk, or University of Wisconsin Solution

Rat hearts were preserved for 18 hr under totally ischemic storage conditions at 0-1 degree C with the commercially supplied EuroCollins, Bretschneider's HTK, and University of Wisconsin (UW) preservation solutions compared with our new preservation solution, Euro-Flush-glutathione solution, and a "refreshed" UW solution (UWG) with 3 mmol/L reduced glutathione added before use. Recovery of the organs was measured during 30 min of parabiotic reperfusion with whole blood of a host rat of the same inbred LEW strain, following an initial warm reflush for 5 min. Functional measurements were performed using a latex balloon in the left ventricle. The metabolic recovery was determined from the myocardium freeze-clamped at the end of reperfusion. The left ventricular pressure (LVP) amplitude during pacing to a heart rate of 300/min, as well as +dp/dtmax, -dp/dtmax, isotonic stroke volume, coronary flow, ATP, and ECP values, recovered significantly better after storage in Euro-Flush-glutathione solution (LVP: 63% of controls on average) compared with when the commercially available solutions were used (EuroCollins: 20%, HTK: 42% of controls in LVP). Hearts preserved in UW solution ViaSpan did not recover during the reperfusion period, when unfiltered solution was used. Filtered ViaSpan resulted in LVP recoveries of 38% of controls, while addition of reduced glutathione immediately before use (UWG) improved the effectivity of this solution significantly (LVP 63% of controls). Similar improvements were found for all other functional and metabolic parameters. Thus, the effectivity of UW solution ViaSpan depends upon extraction of the typical particles by a filtering procedure. Effectivity can be improved by a refreshment procedure with reduced glutathione immediately before use.