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Modeling mammalian hibernation to improve organ cold preservation: Using the intestine as an example

Cell Research volume 35, pages 691–694 (2025)Cite this article

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Dear Editor,

Organ transplantation is the ideal treatment for patients suffering from terminal organ failure.1 As the first step in organ transplantation, cold preservation of organs is crucial for transplantation outcomes. However, donor organs are vulnerable to the effects of static cold storage (SCS), the standard clinical cold preservation method, resulting in a safe cold ischemic time of < 6 h for hearts and lungs, < 10 h for intestines, < 12 h for livers, and ~24 h for kidneys.2

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Fig. 1: Molecular mechanisms of intestinal cold adaptation during mammalian hibernation.

Data availability

All data generated in this study are deposited in the Genome Sequence Archive (GSA) database (accession number: CRA015672).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB1030000) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32422027).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Weiya He, Ziqing He, Wenjun Deng, Chuman Wu, Wenjie Huang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences and UM-Bioland Joint Laboratory, University of Macau, Macau, China

    Weiya He, Ziqing He, Guokai Chen & Ren-He Xu

  2. Innovation Center for Evolutionary Synthetic Biology, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Wenjun Deng, Yifu Chen & Meiling Liu

  3. GMU-GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences, The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Cell Fate Regulation and Diseases, Guangzhou National Laboratory, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Chuman Wu, Wenjie Huang, Changhui Li, Yan Liang, Jiayu Liao & Ji Dong

  4. Department of General Surgery, Third Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Renjie Luo, Yifei Zhao & Xin Zhou

Authors
  1. Weiya He
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  2. Ziqing He
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  3. Wenjun Deng
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  15. Meiling Liu
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  16. Ji Dong
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Contributions

J.D., M.L., R.X. and G.C. designed the study; W.Y.H., W.D., C.W., W.J.H., Y.L., C.L., Y.C., R.L., Y.Z., J.L. and X.Z. performed the experiments; Z.H. conducted the bioinformatic analyses. J.D. and M.L. wrote the manuscript with the help of other authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Guokai Chen, Ren-He Xu, Meiling Liu or Ji Dong.

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The authors declare no competing interests. J.D. is responsible for the potential patents of the study in the future.

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He, W., He, Z., Deng, W. et al. Modeling mammalian hibernation to improve organ cold preservation: Using the intestine as an example. Cell Res 35, 691–694 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-025-01149-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-025-01149-w

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