A search of novel biomarkers in detecting early allograft dysfunction afterliving donor liver transplantation

We plan to enroll 120 living liver donors and 120 corresponding recipients over a 3-year period (roughly 40 pairs per year). Demographic data including age, gender, blood type, serum bilirubin, albumin, prothrombin levels, international normalized ratio (INR), serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity, serum aspartate amniotransferase (AST) activity, serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity, platelet count, cholesterol profile and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score will be collected. Sample collection Blood and urine samples will be collected from the donors pre-operatively and from recipients at 6 different time points as follows: (T1) before induction of general anesthesia as baseline, (T2) 20 minutes after the start of anhepatic phase, (T3) 2 hours post reperfusion, (T4) day 1 post-operatively (T5) day 3 post-operatively, and (T6) day 7 post-operatively. Bile samples will be extracted from donors and recipients from their gallbladders after being removed by the surgeons. Recipients’ remnant liver tissues will also be extracted before livers are to be sent to pathology laboratory. Hemodynamic data will also be collected at these time points. The blood will be centrifuged immediately at 1,000 g, 4 °C, for 10 minutes to obtain plasma. Samples were stored at -80 °C until batch analysis. The routine biochemical data will be measured by the clinical laboratory within the hospital.