Organ transplant is saving millions of lives every year. However, many people continue waiting for the right donor. Some organs, sadly, get rejected as unsuitable for donation, but this decision is not easy to make.
Now scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Transplant Centre and the University of Strathclyde found that handheld laser devices could help doctors to recognize liver that is not suitable for transplant.
Liver disease is one of the leading causes of premature death and often makes the liver unsuitable for transplant. Image credit: BruceBlaus via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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The problem is that liver disease is one of the biggest causes of premature death. This means that many potential donors could have been suffering from this condition. Recognizing damaged liver is therefore very important and yet also very hard. Normally surgeons just inspect the organ by eye and feel and decide whether it is suitable for transplant this way. Blood tests are also used, but liver damage biomarkers are not always easily detectable, which means that a good blood test result doesn’t necessarily mean that the liver is in a good condition for a transplant. All in all it means that sometimes good liver can be rejected due to subjective concerns that it may be damaged.
Now scientists used Raman spectroscopy (RS) technique, which could significantly improve the process of liver examinations before the transplant. Scientists tested this technique with pigs’ liver. They found that RS helps pinpointing the difference between healthy and damaged cells. Essentially, scientists shine laser light onto tissue from pig liver biopsies and the device examines the light that is scattered back. This helps detect congestion – red blood cells infiltrating the body of the liver, signaling about the damage to the organ. RS technique has been previously used to detect breast, oesophageal and brain cancers.
The fact that RS is not entirely new is great. It means that it could be employed very quickly and efficiently. Dr Katherine Ember, one of the authors of the study, said: “We didn’t expect to find such a clear difference in Raman signal between damaged and undamaged liver tissue. It’s very exciting and will be fascinating to see whether this technology can be brought successfully into a clinical setting. This could enable liver damage to be detected early in the transplant procedure, allowing more livers to be transplanted safely and effectively”.
RS one day soon may improve the liver selection for transplant. It could make the entire procedure safer and more efficient. Very importantly – it could help preserve and use healthy organs that would otherwise be discarded due to doctors working on the side of caution.
Source: University of Edinburgh