Normothermic Ex-vivo Kidney Perfusion in a Porcine Auto-Transplantation Model Preserves the Expression of Key Mitochondrial Proteins: An Unbiased Proteomics Analysis

Abstract Normothermic ex-vivo kidney perfusion (NEVKP) results in significantly improved graft function in porcine auto-transplant models of DCD injury compared to static cold storage (SCS); however, the molecular mechanisms underlying these beneficial effects remain unclear. We performed an unbiased proteomics analysis of 28 kidney biopsies obtained at 3 time points from pig kidneys subjected to 30-minutes of warm ischemia, followed by 8 hours of NEVKP or SCS, and auto-transplantation. 70/6593 proteins quantified were differentially expressed between NEVKP and SCS groups (FDR<0.05). Proteins increased in NEVKP mediated key metabolic processes including fatty acid ß-oxidation, the TCA-cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. Comparison of our findings with external datasets of ischemia-reperfusion, and other models of kidney injury confirmed that 47 of our proteins represent a common signature of kidney injury reversed or attenuated by NEVKP. We validated key metabolic proteins (ETFB, CPT2) by immunoblotting. Transcription factor databases identified PPARGC1A, PPARA/G/D and RXRA/B as the upstream regulators of our dataset, and we confirmed their increased expression in NEVKP with RT-PCR. The proteome-level changes observed in NEVKP mediate critical metabolic pathways that may explain the improved graft function observed. These effects may be coordinated by PPAR-family transcription factors, and may represent novel therapeutic targets in ischemia-reperfusion injury.