When a potential organ donor is declared brain dead, the care of the donor is medically managed to ensure their organs remain healthy and available for donation. Division of Transplantation Professor Joshua Mezrich, MD believes this period of time is a prime opportunity to research biomarkers that could provide an indication of organ quality and study interventions that could improve this quality and ultimately maximize the number of donor organs that become available for transplant. Gut health is one indicator of overall health that could impact organ quality, and with a new one-year, $25,000 grant from the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations Foundation, Mezrich plans to study whether providing potential organ donors with a gut-protective diet could improve the quality and number of organs that a donor is able to provide.
“We think that brain death can cause an imbalance in the different microorganisms that are part of the gut microbiome, which can increase gut bacteria moving into the bloodstream and gaining access to other parts of the body,” explained Mezrich. “For organs that end up being exposed to these bacteria, this can cause inflammation and it could negatively impact the health of the exposed organs in a way that could make them less viable for transplantation.”
Working with Dr. Clark Kensinger, a transplant surgeon at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and the Associate Medical Director of the LifeLink of Georgia organ recovery center, Mezrich plans to collect daily blood, stool, and urine samples from organ donors at UW Health and Piedmont Atlanta who have been declared brain dead. Some of those donors will have a tube placed in their gut that will deliver a special diet designed to protect gut health. At the time of the surgery to remove donated organs, organ tissue samples will also be collected. The research team will compare the samples they obtained from organ donors on the special diet to those who did not receive this diet, looking at markers of organ health. They will also track the number of organs that are successfully transplanted, and the outcomes of the patients who receive those organs.
“The number of patients who are on waitlists for an organ transplant is ever-growing, so when donor organs become available it’s crucial that we maximize the health of these organs and the chance that we can successfully get them to patients who need them,” said Mezrich. “Our study aims to provide some of the first data about whether a dietary intervention for potential organ donors that are brain dead could improve the quality and number of organs that become available for transplant.”