Hydrogen gas with hypothermic machine perfusion induces lipidomic alterations in donation-after-cardiac-death rat livers
Minami Y, Gowda SGBB, Shibata K, Sakamoto S, Gowda D, Shimamura T, Taketomi A, Chiba H, Fukai M, Hui SP. · Journal of Lipid Research. 2026;67(6):101040.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Four-group ex-vivo rat-liver preservation/reperfusion lipidomics experiment
Liver health
Other forms
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Livers from male Wistar rats, including donation-after-cardiac-death grafts exposed to 30 minutes of warm ischemia.
27 liver grafts: healthy immediate-reperfusion control n=6, cold storage n=6, hypothermic machine perfusion n=9 and H₂-supplemented machine perfusion n=6.
Three-hour preservation treatment followed by 90-minute ex-vivo reperfusion.
Three hours of 7 °C hypothermic machine perfusion with perfusate continuously exposed to H₂, followed by 90 minutes of isolated liver reperfusion.
Pure H₂ added to an oxygenated perfusion gas system — H₂ alone as the added study gas, not Brown's gas or inhalation.
H₂ was 4% of the reported gas-flow proportion during machine perfusion. Perfusion-solution flow or absolute gas flow was not reported; subsequent liver reperfusion targeted oxygen partial pressure 450–550 mmHg.
Not applicable to inhalation and not calculable for perfusate preparation — only a 4% gas-flow proportion was reported, without total gas flow.
The perfusion system used an O₂/CO₂ gas source, but absolute O₂ flow and the final gas proportions after H₂ addition were not reported.
Healthy liver, three-hour cold storage and hypothermic machine perfusion without H₂.
Outcomes and reported result
Untargeted lipidomics covering 253 lipid species, lipid-class ratios and phospholipase-A2 activity.
Several free-fatty-acid, lysophospholipid, phosphatidic-acid and cardiolipin-related measures shifted toward healthy controls with H₂ versus machine perfusion alone. LPE and ceramide remained elevated across ischemic groups, total sphingomyelin did not differ significantly, and recovery was incomplete.
The complete free PMC article, methods, figures and supplement-linked lipid table were checked for group sizes, perfusion timing, gas specification and missing absolute flow, positive and persistent/null lipid findings, limitations, funding and conflicts.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Ex-vivo rat grafts, small unequal groups, semiquantitative high-dimensional lipidomics, many comparisons and no transplant-recipient or organ-function endpoint in this report. Japanese public grants supported the work; authors declared no conflicts.
Experimental preservation of rat DCD livers; it does not establish transplant outcomes or a clinical perfusion protocol.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 41999982 · DOI: 10.1016/j.jlr.2026.101040
Free full article in PubMed Central.
Complete PMC article and PubMed metadata; full-text extraction checked 9 August 2026.
2026-08-10