Can we improve the condition of damaged donor kidneys and make more available for transplantation?
Mr John Fallon, who is a senior trainee in transplant surgery at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, has been awarded a Professor Michael Nicholson award of £190,000 to investigate whether a technique known as normothermic machine perfusion (NMP), can be used to improve the health of donor kidneys that might not have previously been considered suitable for transplantation.
“Receiving the Professor Nicholson award is transformative to my research, allowing full time commitment to my project, which is vital in delivering high quality research. There are large numbers of highly sensitised and older patients with renal failure in urgent need of kidney transplantation, improving and optimising the hundreds of more marginal kidneys generously donated each year is a vital step in making more kidneys available for transplant and improving their outcomes. The award is also an important foundation for my research career facilitating completion of my PhD, and I’m very grateful to Kidney Research UK and the Stoneygate Trust.” John Fallon
The problem
Many patients on dialysis are waiting for a donor kidney, and each year around 15-20% of the kidneys that are generously donated for transplantation cannot be used owing to concerns about how well they would function after surgery.
The solution
Donated kidneys are usually put in cold storage to keep them as healthy as possible throughout the time between donation and transplantation. With support from Kidney Research UK, John and his colleagues will investigate whether NMP (during which warm, oxygen-rich blood is pumped round a donated kidney prior to transplantation) can be used to deliver medications to donated kidneys to improve their condition and maximise the chance of them working well after transplantation.
John will look at whether treatments delivered to donated kidneys that would usually have been considered unsuitable for transplant can improve their condition so that they would meet the standard needed to be used in a patient awaiting a new kidney. In particular, he will assess the impact of using medicines which can reduce formation of blood clots and protect the vulnerable cells that line kidney blood vessels.
What this might mean for patients
The results of this study will help us to understand if some kidneys that would currently be considered not healthy enough for transplant can be repaired. This could potentially increase the number of available kidneys, improve the function of donated organs and reduce the time that people living with kidney failure wait for a transplant.
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