Lung transplantation-induced cold ischemia–reperfusion injury in the murine lung

Cold ischemia-reperfusion induced injury contributes to poor lung transplant outcomes. We used transcriptome sequencing to study the biological response of mouse lungs to the cold ischemia-reperfusion process. Mouse orthotopic left LTx was performed with standard cuff techniques. Briefly, the donor lungs were recovered after being flushed with 10ml low potassium dextran (LPD) solution and inflated with 50% oxygen. Cold ischemia was induced by storing donor lungs in 20ml LPD at 4°C for 24 hours. Then, the left donor lung was cuffed and implanted into recipients within 45 minutes. After the 4-hour reperfusion, the recipient mice were sacrificed and the transplanted lungs were collected. Transcriptional profiling were performed on three naive lung samples, and four lung allografts that experienced 24 hours of cold ischemia and 4 hours of reperfusion.