Lung transplantation through controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) has slowly gained universal acceptance with reports of equivalent outcomes to those through donation after brain death. In contrast, uncontrolled DCD (uDCD) lung use is controversial and requires ethical, legal and medical complexities to be addressed in a limited time. Consequently, uDCD lung use has not previously been reported in the United States. Despite these potential barriers, we present a case of a patient with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and the body who was unsuccessfully resuscitated and ultimately became an uDCD donor. A cytomegalovirus positive recipient who had previously consented for CDC high-risk, DCD and participation in the NOVEL trial was transplanted from this uDCD donor, following 3 hours of ex vivo lung perfusion. The postoperative course was uneventful and the recipient was discharged home on day 9. While this case represents a “best-case scenario,” it illustrates a method for potential expansion of the lung allograft pool through uDCD after unsuccessful resuscitation in hospitalized patients.

Summary We previously identified plasma plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) level as a quantitative lung injury biomarker in PGD. We hypothesized plasma levels of PAI-1 used as a quantitative trait could facilitate discovery of genetic loci important in PGD pathogenesis. A 2-stage cohort study was performed. In stage 1, we tested associations of loci with PAI-1 plasma level using linear modeling. Genotyping was performed using the Illumina CVD Bead Chip v2. Loci meeting a p<5×10−4 cutoff were carried forward and tested in Stage 2 for association with PGD. 297 enrollees were evaluated in Stage 1. 6 loci, associated with PAI-1, were carried forward to Stage 2 and evaluated in 728 patients. rs3168046 (Toll interacting protein, TOLLIP) was significantly associated with PGD (p=0.006). The increased risk of PGD for carrying at least one copy of this variant was 11.7% [95% CI: 4.9%, 18.5%]. The false positive rate for individuals with this genotype who did not have PGD was 6.1%. Variants in the TOLLIP gene are associated with higher circulating PAI-1 plasma levels and validate for association with clinical PGD. A protein quantitative trait analysis for PGD risk prioritizes genetic variations in TOLLIP, and supports a role for toll-like receptors in PGD pathogenesis.

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