Here ’s how you heat up cold hearts—for transplantation

[Photo courtesy University of Minnesota]A University of Minnesota–led research team has successfully warmed large-scale animal heart valves and blood vessels that were previously preserved at low temperatures. The discovery of this rewarming process is pivotal for organs and tissues that are left in storage for transplantation for extended periods. “This is the first time that anyone has been able to scale up to a larger biological system and demonstrate successful, fast, and uniform warming hundreds of degrees Celsius per minute of preserved tissue without damaging the tissue,” said John Bischof, a University of Minnesota mechanical and biomedical engineering professor and senior author of the study, in a news release. Researchers have previously only been able to rewarm 1 mm of tissue and solution in the past. The new study has shown success in rewarming up to 50 mm, leaving researchers with the possibility of being able to heat up larger-scale organs, according to Bischof. Get the full story on our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing. The post Here’s how you heat up cold hearts—for transplantation appeared first on MassDevice.
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Tags: Biotech Transplants Cryogenics MedTech organ donation University of Minnesota Source Type: news