Function of Isolated, Perfused Guinea Pig Hearts Stored Under Various Conditions

Abstract

ALTHOUGH successful cardiac homotransplantation depends largely on solving immunological problems causing the rejection phenomenon, methods of acquiring and storing hearts must be developed to make the procedure more widely applicable. A previous publication¹ reported investigations aimed at determining the length of time after death that guinea pig hearts could be removed and still function effectively. Hearts removed more than 15 minutes after death failed to reach contractile amplitudes or forces equal to those of control hearts removed from live, anesthetized animals. While it appears that hearts can be removed after death and still function effectively, in the guinea pig at least, this interval between death and removal of the heart seems relatively short. The present study, using isolated, perfused, guinea pig hearts, was aimed at evaluating several storage techniques to determine how long guinea pig hearts could be stored and still function effectively. Materials and Methods Guinea pigs weighing