The vast majority of donor kidneys used for transplantation are harvested from cadavers and stored for a period of time prior to their transplantation. There is currently no reliable way to determine the viability of these donor kidneys let alone to predict whether or not such kidneys might exhibit delayed posttransplant function. The applicant has reported that a vital confocal microscope (TSCM) designed by the Tandem Scanning Corporation can image the extent of acute tubular necrosis of unstained, living, cold stored kidneys. The TSCM provides reflected light images in "real time" and does this in a non-invasive fashion. However, it is not known whether or not these unique TSCM images of unstained living kidneys can be used to predict posttransplant function of donor kidneys. The Phase I proposal is therefore designed to determine whether or not the hisopathological information obtained by TSCM can be used to predict the viability and posttrasplant renal function of donor kidneys which have been exposed to insults commonly associated with donor kidneys. A rat kidney transplantation model will be used in order to permit an evaluation of a large number of kidneys, allow for correlation to already well known histopathology based on this model, and because of the less complicated surgical procedures associated with this model.
Thesaurus Terms: cold temperature, histology, kidney transplantation histopathology, image enhancement, kidney necrosis confocal scanning microscopy
