Normothermic perfusion of cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic explanted human
livers: applicability to study drug pharmacokinetics
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Realistic models predicting hepatobiliary
processes in health and disease are lacking. We therefore aimed to
develop a physiologically relevant human liver model consisting of
normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) of explanted diseased human livers
that can be used to investigate hepatic first-pass, clearance, biliary
excretion and drug-drug interactions. Experimental approach: Eleven
livers were included in the study, seven with a cirrhotic and four with
a non-cirrhotic disease background. After explantation of the diseased
liver, the liver artery and portal vein were reconstructed followed by
NMP. After 120 minutes of perfusion, a drug cocktail (rosuvastatin,
digoxin, metformin and furosemide) was administered to the portal vein
and 120 minutes later, a second bolus of the drug cocktail was
co-administered with drug inhibitors to study relevant drug-drug
interactions. Key results: The explanted livers showed good viability
and functionality after explantation and 360 minutes of NMP. Hepatic
first-pass and clearance of rosuvastatin and digoxin showed to be the
most affected by cirrhosis with an increase in Cmax of 10.03 and 2.89
times, respectively, compared to non-cirrhotic livers. No major
differences were observed for metformin and furosemide. Drug-drug
interaction of rosuvastatin or digoxin with inhibitors were more
pronounced in non-cirrhotic livers compared to cirrhotic livers.
Conclusions and Implications: Our results demonstrated that explanted
cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic livers were suitable for NMP and we
demonstrated the applicability to study hepatic first pass, clearance,
biliary excretion and drug-drug interaction. This model can be applied
in a variety of research settings for hepatology, transplantation and
pharmacology