The Journal of Experimental Medicine, a U.S. scientific journal with great impact in the international biomedical field, has just published a research from the University of Navarra. It is about the findings of a team of specialists from the University Clinic and the research center Applied Medicine (CIMA). They have discovered that the liver releases a substance called cardiotrophin-1 when it suffers an aggression; for example, when blood flow is interrupted. The scientists proved the potent protective action of cardiotrophin-1 on the liver: when administered to animals, this organ is protected and can withstand a prolonged interruption of the blood supply without suffering damage.

Dr. Jesús Prieto envisages implications of these results at internship . Among other possible applications, treatment with cardiotrophin-1 in patients undergoing liver transplantation or partial liver resection would protect the organ during the operation and could improve the results of the surgery. "The administration of cardiotrophin-1 before the operation would make it possible to perform more extensive liver resections than those currently performed and, therefore, to perform surgery on patients with tumors that cannot be removed due to their extension".

More organs for transplantation and less risk for donors

Cardiotrophin-1 could also reduce the risks of postoperative complications in living donor transplantation. "In cadaveric transplantation, the treatment would make it possible to preserve the organ in good condition for longer periods of time. In addition, it would make it possible to use unsuitable livers that, because they are highly susceptible to damage during the operation, are not eligible for transplantation. All this would result in an increase in the number of organs available for patients who need a new one," according to Dr. Jesús Prieto, availability .

Other foreign scientists have long identified cardiotrophin-1 as a cytokine produced by heart cells. The programs of study conducted at the CIMA of the University of Navarra now shows that this substance is also produced in the liver, on which it exerts powerful protective effects. The authors of this published scientific work are doctors María íñiguez, Carmen Berasain, Eduardo Martínez-Ansó, Matilde Bustos, Diane Pennica (in California) and the directors of the team, Matías ávila and Jesús Prieto. In 2006 the European Medicines Agency approved this CIMA patent as an orphan drug. Digna Biotech, business biotechnology company that develops the discoveries of CIMA, holds the patent for the use of cardiotrophin-1 in liver diseases. It will soon start clinical trials of this substance in patients undergoing surgery.