Zebrafish are a powerful model for investigating cardiac repair due to their unique regenerative abilities, scalability, and compatibility with many genetic tools. However, characterizing the regeneration process in live adult zebrafish hearts has proved challenging because adult fish are opaque and explanted hearts in conventional culture conditions experience rapid declines in morphology and physiology. To overcome these limitations, we fabricated a fluidic device for culturing explanted adult zebrafish hearts with constant media perfusion that is also compatible with live imaging. Unlike hearts cultured in dishes for one week, the morphology and calcium activity of hearts cultured in the device for one week were largely similar to freshly explanted hearts. We also cultured injured hearts in the device and used live imaging techniques to continuously record the revascularization process over several days, demonstrating how our device enables unprecedented visual access to the multi-day process of adult zebrafish heart regeneration.

A system is configured to perfuse one or more organs and/or associated tissues while monitoring the physiological function, testing medical devices or therapies, or both. The system includes a pump, a container, a fluid circuit, a platform, and at least one actuator. The pump is configured to generate a flow of a fluid. The container defines an interior cavity and is configured to receive at least one organ or tissue and maintain at least one environmental condition associated with the at least one organ or tissue within the interior cavity. The fluid circuit is configured to fluidically couple the pump to the at least one organ or tissue. The platform is operably coupled to the container. The at least one actuator is configured to move the platform to mimic at least one biological movement associated with the at least one organ or tissue.

An apparatus, a system, and methods for receiving, perfusing and maintaining and assessing excised donor heart physiological functionality. The system generally comprises an apparatus for receiving and holding an excised heart that is interconnected with: (i) a perfusate-processing system, (ii) a bi-directional perfusate pumping system, (iii) flow sensors for monitoring the flow of perfusate to and from an installed heart's aorta, pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, and vena cava, (iv) an ECG apparatus interconnectable with the installed heart, and (v) probes interconnecting the installed heart with instruments for monitoring the heart's physiological functionality using load independent indices and load dependent indices.

This invention relates to the preservation of vascularized tissues and organs by freezing or by vitrification; to organ and tissue cryopreservation or banking; and to tissue and organ perfusion with cryoprotective agents (also known as cryoprotectants).

Systems and methods of the invention generally relate to prolonging viability of bodily tissue, especially lung tissue, through the use of an expandable accumulator to maintain a constant pressure within the lumen of the organ even during external pressure fluctuations due to, for example, flight. Systems and methods may include prolonging donor organ viability in storage through the use of an organ container that mimics the geometry and orientation of the organ in vivo.

In one representative embodiment, a method of perfusing organs in a patient's body is provided. The method comprises isolating the visceral arteries and the visceral veins from blood circulating through the patient's heart and perfusing the visceral arteries, the visceral veins, and the abdominal organs with a perfusion fluid that is fluidly separated from the blood circulating through the patient's heart. While the visceral arteries and the visceral veins are isolated, and the visceral arteries, the visceral veins, and the abdominal organs are being perfused, the patient's blood is allowed to continue to circulate through the heart.

The present invention provides an ex vivo lymph node is provided. The ex vivo lymph node comprises an intact lobule in a chamber connected to an afferent lymphatic vessel and an efferent lymphatic vessel. The intact lobule is perfused with a lymphatic fluid into the chamber via the afferent lymphatic vessel and out of the chamber via the efferent lymphatic vessel and perfused with a vascular fluid into the intact lobule via an endogenous artery and out of the intact lobule via an endogenous vein. Also provided is a method for preparing the ex vivo lymph node. Further provided are methods for screening for an agent capable of changing the ex vivo lymph node, producing T lymphocytes or B lymphocytes and determining immunoreactivity of the ex vivo lymph node.

A container unit (6) is provided for storing an organ or body tissue, wherein the container unit is configured as an insert for a storage apparatus and wherein the container unit comprises: a container body (602) defining a storage region; an inlet port (632) for connection to a fluid supply system to receive persufflation fluid; an outlet port (634) for connection to a said organ or body tissue stored in the container body; and a fluid processing device (604) comprising an internal passageway (636) connecting the inlet port to the outlet port, wherein the fluid processing device is configured to process, e.g. cool and humidify, persufflation fluid flowing through the internal passageway from the inlet port to the outlet port. The present disclosure also relates to a storage apparatus, a kit of parts, and a method of preparing an apparatus to store and preserve an organ or body tissue.

An organ perfusion solution includes a colloid component, a salt mixture, a buffer system, and a glutamine compound in a physiologically acceptable medium.

The present invention relates to a normothermic perfusion device to maintain optimal physiological conditions for both a liver and a kidney intended to be transplanted, comprising a permanent part (2) and a disposable part (3), wherein the disposable part (3) comprises a container (4) adapted to house a liver or a kidney and a hydraulic circuit (17) comprising at least one first tube (21) that channels a perfusion fluid externally pumped to the container (4) to the liver or kidney, a second tube (22) that channels a vasodilator fluid to the liver or kidney, and wherein the permanent part (2) comprises in an upper portion a relief (13) configured to house, at least, two containers (4) of different dimensions and geometric configurations.