Background Vascular damage and primary graft dysfunction increase with prolonged
preservation times of transplanted donor lungs. Hence, storage and conservation of donated
lungs in protein-free, dextran-containing electrolyte solutions, like Perfadex, is limited to
about 6 hours. We hypothesized that transplanted lungs are protected against neutrophil-
mediated proteolytic damage by adding α 1-anti-trypsin (AAT), a highly abundant human
plasma proteinase inhibitor, to Perfadex. Methods A realistic clinically oriented murine …