This is a Research Topic initiated by ISACB, the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology.

This collection will showcase cutting-edge advances and visionary perspectives in cardiac transplantation and organ protection, and we encourage clinicians and researchers to contribute their latest findings to this exciting initiative.

For more than 50 years, cold cardioplegic arrest and static transport on ice was the gold standard of procurement in cardiac transplantation. This procedure determined (1) the maximum time of 4-5 hours, which the heart would tolerate under ischemic conditions outside the body and (2) the limited radius of action of organ procurement.

During recent years, however, exciting new technologies and concepts are revolutionizing both, the procurement as well as the duration and conditions of organ storage. Donor preparation and recipient conditioning are changing, thereby raising medical, legal and ethical issues. This special issue of Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine will address these issues and outline the principles of organ preservation in current clinical practice.

Beyond, we will focus on emerging techniques such as partial organ transplantation and donation after circulatory death including organ perfusion systems. Finally, we want to highlight innovative, preclinical concepts such as organ repair centers and metabolic organ conditioning as well as underexplored subzero organ preservation.

Specific themes for this collection of articles include, but not limited to:
• Advances in ex vivo perfusion systems
• Subzero and supercooling organ preservation
• Donation after circulatory death in cardiac transplantation
• Donor heart conditioning and metabolic reprogramming
• Artificial and bioengineered preservation fluids
• Organ repair centers and biotechnological innovation
• Molecular and imaging biomarkers of graft viability
• Partial heart transplantation and tissue-specific preservation
• Legal, ethical, and policy considerations in novel preservation approaches
• Translational insights from preclinical models

In summary, this special issue shall give our readers a full spectrum from current clinical practice and challenges to new technologies or methodologies, and future perspectives that that will redefine and advance the field.

*Topic Editor Andreas Zuckermann received financial support for research from Paragonix and Xvivo. Topic editor Andreas Zuckermann is on the advisory board of Octopharma and Xvivo. Topic editor Gerald Brandacher is on the advisory board of X-Therma and Ossium Health.
The other Topic Editors report no competing interests related to this Research Topic.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Advances in Transplantation and Organ Preservation