ADMIRE
Assessing Donor kidneys and MonitorIng transplant REcipients (ADMIRE)
Funded by Kidney Research UK
Example multi-parametric ex-vivo quantitative MRI data of a human kidney declined for transplant.
Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for chronic kidney failure, transforming the lives of those who receive a transplant as they can live longer and free of the constant burden of dialysis. However, a high number of patients die while on the transplant list, or are suspended from the list when they become too ill to receive a transplant. To save more lives, transplant clinicians accept more kidneys from from older or sicker donors who may suffer from undetected kidney disease. These donor groups are defined as ‘higher-risk’ because organs from these donors may not function so well long term, resulting in the recipient having to return to dialysis. Current clinical methods to assess donor kindeys cannot accurately predict how well a transplant will work or for how long a kidney will function after transplantation.
We aim to provide information so doctors can accurately assess kidneys, allowing them to transplant only kidneys that will function well in the recipient. For this, we use kidneys that have been donated to research as they are not good enough quality to be transplanted. We then use multiparametric ex-vivo MRI to generate high resolution internal pictures of whole kidneys to uncover indicators that tell us that the organ is functioning less well. The MRI data is combined with biopsies taken from the donated kidneys and blood samples from the donor to allow state of the art histological and multi-omic analysis, therefore characterising the kidney even better.
The pathway followed by kidneys donated to the ADMIRE project. 