Scanning Electron Microscopy Findings of Machine Perfused Liver Graft After Warm Ischemia Between Hypothermic and Rewarming Machine Perfusion in Pigs.

BACKGROUND: The shortage of organ donors is a universal problem. Use of grafts from donors after cardiac death would greatly contribute to the expansion of the donor organ pool. The two major methods of preservation are cold storage and machine perfusion (MP) preservation, and each has its own advantages. Several studies have reported the relative merits of MP for the preservation for grafts from donors after cardiac death. In this study, we used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess the damage to the liver between hypothermic and rewarming preservation conditions. METHODS: Porcine livers were perfused with a newly developed MP system. The livers were perfused for 4 hours with a modified University of Wisconsin solution-gluconate solution. In group 1, grafts were preserved with warm ischemic time for 60 minutes and hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) for 4 hours. In group 2, grafts were preserved with warn ischemic time for 60 minutes and had rewarming up to 22°C by MP (RMP) for 4 hours. RESULTS: A significant enlargement of the mitochondria were observed in both the HMP and RMP groups under higher magnification, Additionally, vacuoles appeared occasionally in hepatocytes in the RMP for 4 hours group, but not in the HMP for 4 hours group. CONCLUSIONS: An analysis by scanning electron microscope appears to be useful to evaluate the levels of damage of hepatocytes compared with transmission electron microscopy, and further study is needed to analyze the significance of the appearance of swelling of mitochondria and vacuolization during preservation.

Backscattered electron image of osmium-impregnated/macerated tissues as a novel technique for identifying the cis-face of the Golgi apparatus by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy.

The osmium maceration method with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) enabled to demonstrate directly the three-dimensional (3D) structure of membranous cell organelles. However, the polarity of the Golgi apparatus (that is, the cis-trans axis) can hardly be determined by SEM alone, because there is no appropriate immunocytochemical method for specific labelling of its cis- or trans-faces. In the present study, we used the osmium impregnation method, which forms deposits of reduced osmium exclusively in the cis-Golgi elements, for preparation of specimens for SEM. The newly developed procedure combining osmium impregnation with subsequent osmium maceration specifically visualised the cis-elements of the Golgi apparatus, with osmium deposits that were clearly detected by backscattered electron-mode SEM. Prolonged osmication by osmium impregnation (2% OsO4 solution at 40°C for 40 h) and osmium maceration (0.1% OsO4 solution at 20°C for 24 h) did not significantly impair the 3D ultrastructure of the membranous cell organelles, including the Golgi apparatus. This novel preparation method enabled us to determine the polarity of the Golgi apparatus with enough information about the surrounding 3D ultrastructure by SEM, and will contribute to our understanding of the global organisation of the entire Golgi apparatus in various differentiated cells.