HYPOXANTHINE EXCRETION DURING PRESERVATION OF RABBIT KIDNEYS FOR TRANSPLANTATION

Abstract

The loss of 5''-adenine nucleotides from kidney tissue subjected to acute ischemia can be indirectly estimated by washing out the end product of catabolism, hypoxanthine, from the ischemic tissue to the perfusate. As a correlation was previously demonstrated between the duration of the normothermic ischemia and the washout of hypoxanthine during preservation, hypoxanthine was studied as a prospective measurement of ischemic renal damage, by transplantation of rabbit kidneys. The results were compared to the already established parameters L-lactate and lactate dehydrogenase. Different ischemic trauma and methods of preservation were employed in order to determine the relationship of these parameters to the ischemic kidney damage as evaluated by the functional regeneration of the grafts after autotransplantation. The wash-out of hypoxanthine was correlated to such a degree to the reversibility of the ischemia cell degeneration that a certain in vitro exclusion of the irreversibly damaged kidney grafts was possible. Hypoxanthine can function as a reliable and sensitive measurement for the in vitro establishment of the ischemic kidney parenchymal damage, can be employed clinically with advantage.