Evaluation of liver viability for transplantation by fluorescence spectroscopy

Liver transplantation is a life-saving procedure for patients with end-stage liver diseases. However, the unbalance between number of transplanted patients and patients on waiting list is still an issue. The introduction of perfusion machines and the use of marginal organs tend to reduce this unbalance. However, all marginal organs cannot be transplanted as they suffer more frequently from post-transplant complications. Today there is no efficient method to assess the viability of the organ and therefore to select the marginal organs suitable transplantation. Tissue autofluorescence is an optical method which enables to detect metabolic activity and offer insights about liver viability. Our preliminary results with fluorescence measurements show that we can measure the relative concentration of different mitochondria biomarkers such as flavin, NADH and PpIX under different ischemia-reperfusion conditions on porcine model.