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Life Science Holdings of Chicago thinks it can keep transplant hearts in
better condition using a new two-step process (WO 00/18226). First, the
inventors restore natural enzyme levels, depleted after the donor’s death, by
flooding the heart, still in the donor’s body, with a haemoglobin-based
bicarbonate fluid at body temperature. The heart is then flushed with cold
antioxidants. These prevent damage to the heart’s lining and gives the organ a
better chance of survival until transplant. Left to itself, the heart starts to
self-destruct 45 minutes after blood stops pumping.