Orthotopic Heart Auto-Transplantation in a Swine Model

Background and Aim: The porcine heart bears the best resemblance to the human heart and remains the preferred preclinical model for anatomical, physiological, and medical device studies. In an effort to study phenomena related strictly to ischemia reperfusion and donor preservation protocols, it is essential to avoid the immune responses related to allotransplantation. Orthotopic auto-transplantation is a unique strategy to the field of cardiac transplantation for ex vivo experimentation. Nevertheless, auto-transplantation carries its own technical challenges related to insufficient length of the great vessels that are to be transected and re-anastomosed. Methods: A novel method for orthotopic cardiac auto-transplantation in the porcine model was developed and was described herein. Porcine models were used for ex vivo experimentation of a novel device to study ischemia reperfusion injury. Results: A total of five porcine models were used for ex vivo experimentation of a novel device to mitigate ischemia reperfusion injury and determine effects of donor preservation. Modifications to routine cardiac transplantation protocols to allow for successful auto-transplantation are described. Conclusion: Orthotopic cardiac auto-transplantation in the porcine model is a plausible and technically feasible method for reliable study of ischemia reperfusion injury and donor preservation protocols. Here, we describe methods for both direct orthotopic porcine cardiac auto-transplantations as well as a simplified protocol that can be substituted for full surgical auto-transplantation for the studies of preservation of donor hearts.