Combating Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury with Micronutrients and Natural Compounds during Solid Organ Transplantation: Data of Clinical Trials and Lessons of Preclinical Findings

Although extended donor criteria grafts bear a higher risk of complications such as graft dysfunction, the exceeding demand requires to extent the pool of potential donors. The risk of complications is highly associated with ischemia-reperfusion injury, a condition characterized by high loads of oxidative stress exceeding antioxidative defense mechanisms. The antioxidative properties, along with other beneficial effects like anti-inflammatory, antiapoptotic or antiarrhythmic effects of several micronutrients and natural compounds, have recently emerged increasing research interest resulting in various preclinical and clinical studies. Preclinical studies reported about ameliorated oxidative stress and inflammatory status, resulting in improved graft survival. Although the majority of clinical studies confirmed these results, reporting about improved recovery and superior organ function, others failed to do so. Yet, only a limited number of micronutrients and natural compounds have been investigated in a (large) clinical trial. Despite some ambiguous clinical results and modest clinical data availability, the vast majority of convincing animal and in vitro data, along with low cost and easy availability, encourage the conductance of future clinical trials. These should implement insights gained from animal data.