Currently, the gold standard for donor organ preservation in clinical organ transplantation consists of 3 plastic bags and an ice box. The first plastic bag includes the organ itself immersed in preservation solution (e.g. Celsior). This bag is put in a second bag filled with saline, and then these two are put in a third bag filled with saline which is then put in the ice box. The disadvantage of this method is that the organ usually gets TOO cold. It has been shown that the theoretical perfect temperature for organ preservation is 4°C - 8°C. While higher temperatures lead to hypoxic injury of the organ because the metabolism is not decreased efficiently, lower temperatures than 4°C increase the risk of cold injury with protein denaturation.
