Superoxide dismutase improves organ preservation in liver transplantation

There are several recent reports that demonstrate a beneficial effect of allopurinol in ischemia-induced hepatocellular injury. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of the superoxide anion in the mechanism of harvesting injury, using its scavenger enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD), in an animal liver transplantation model. There is reasonably good evidence that harvesting injury in liver transplantation occurs as a consequence of a free radical-mediated ischemia reperfusion mechanism. Although the human liver can be successfully preserved under hypothermic conditions four up to ten hours, prolonged hepatic preservation continues to be a major problem. These data support the hypothesis that oxygen radical scavengers are efficacious in improving liver preservation for transplantation.