Scholars@Duke
Nader Abraham

Nader Abraham

House Staff
Surgery
nader.abraham@duke.edu
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710

Scholarly Works

Optimized cellular perfusate increases lung viability ex vivo and extends the duration of ex vivo lung perfusion.

Conference J Heart Lung Transplant · May 14, 2026 BACKGROUND: Ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) has emerged as a strategy to assess and extend preservation of donor lungs prior to transplantation. However, due to progressive deterioration of the graft, current protocols limit EVLP duration to 10-12 h. We deve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Back-to-base Versus In-transit Machine Perfusion in Donation After Circulatory Death Liver Transplantation: Insights From a National Registry.

Journal article Transplant Direct · April 2026 BACKGROUND: Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) improves utilization of extended criteria liver grafts, but the optimal delivery strategy-whether in-transit or back-to-base-remains uncertain. METHODS: Adult recipients of donation after circulatory death ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Standardized Porcine Kidney Auto-transplant Protocol for Studying Delayed Graft Function.

Journal article J Vis Exp · March 20, 2026 Delayed graft function (DGF) is commonly defined as the need for dialysis within 7 days after kidney transplantation; however, current definitions often rely on subjective clinical judgment and lack standardized criteria describing graft sufficiency accura ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adeno-associated virus-mediated transduction of PD-L1 in a rodent lung transplant model.

Journal article Am J Transplant · October 2025 Acute cellular rejection is a key contributor to chronic lung allograft dysfunction following transplantation; while treatable, traditional immunosuppressive therapies are associated with significant side effects. Gene therapy offers an approach to modulat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acoustofluidic system for targeted antibody removal in transplantation: Enabling small-volume therapeutic apheresis.

Journal article Sci Adv · September 5, 2025 Antibody-mediated rejection is a leading cause of allograft failure and mortality in pediatric solid organ transplant recipients. Current apheresis systems require large blood volumes and are primarily designed for adults, making them unsuitable for childr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transforming the logistics of liver transplantation with normothermic machine perfusion: Clinical impact versus cost.

Journal article Liver Transpl · June 1, 2025 Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) facilitates the utilization of marginal liver allografts. It remains unknown whether clinical benefits offset additional costs in the real-world setting. We performed a comparison of outcomes and hospitalization costs f ... Full text Link to item Cite

Normothermic machine perfusion reduces epithelial injury and prolongs allograft preservation time compared to cold storage

Conference Physiology · May 2025 Intestinal transplantation (IT) is the only treatment for patients with intestinal failure who cannot tolerate parenteral nutrition. However, IT often faces high rejection rates, partly due to damage from the currently practiced preservation method ... Full text Cite

Preservation of Epithelial Barrier Integrity and Microbial Populations with Mechanical Perfusion in Intestinal Transplantation

Conference Physiology · May 2025 Transplantation, the only definitive therapy for intestinal failure, is plagued by severe complications associated with intestinal barrier breakdown including the translocation of bacteria. Currently, clinical intestinal transplantation (IT) employ ... Full text Cite

Normothermic Machine Perfusion Mitigates Allograft Inflammation in Intestinal Transplantation

Conference Physiology · May 2025 The only life-saving therapy for intestinal failure patients who no longer tolerate parenteral nutrition is transplantation. Intestinal transplantation (IT) following the traditionally employed allograft static cold storage (CS) method results in ... Full text Cite

Fine tuning between regeneration and anti-apoptosis as a key advantage of using normothermic machine perfusion in intestinal transplantation

Conference Physiology · May 2025 Maintaining intestinal barrier integrity is critical to ensuring intestinal transplant (IT) patients’ health. Our research has focused on optimizing allograft viability during the storage period by mimicking a normal physiological environment thro ... Full text Cite

Natural Killer Cell Phenotypes and Clinical Outcomes in Pediatric Kidney Transplantation.

Journal article Pediatr Transplant · December 2024 BACKGROUND: Natural killer (NK) cells have gained recognition for playing an integral role in both alloimmunity and protective immunity, particularly viral infection control, in solid organ transplantation. Using data from the Clinical Trials in Organ Tran ... Full text Link to item Cite

Optimizing DCD Liver Grafts With Prolonged Warm Ischemic Time Using Stabilized Plasmin in a Static Cold Storage Orthotopic Rat Liver Transplant Model.

Journal article Transplant Direct · August 2024 BACKGROUND: The clinical success of liver transplantation has led to increased demand, requiring further expansion of the donor pool. Therapeutic interventions to optimize organs from donation after circulatory death (DCD) have significant potential to mit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Subnormothermic Oxygenated Machine Perfusion (24 h) in DCD Kidney Transplantation.

Journal article Transplant Direct · June 2024 BACKGROUND: Ex vivo kidney perfusion is an evolving platform that demonstrates promise in preserving and rehabilitating the kidney grafts. Despite this, there is little consensus on the optimal perfusion conditions. Hypothermic perfusion offers limited fun ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparison of the effects of normothermic machine perfusion and cold storage preservation on porcine intestinal allograft regenerative potential and viability.

Conference Am J Transplant · April 2024 Intestinal transplantation (IT) is the final treatment option for intestinal failure. Static cold storage (CS) is the standard preservation method used for intestinal allografts. However, CS and subsequent transplantation induce ischemia-reperfusion injury ... Full text Link to item Cite

Normothermic Machine Perfusion of Donor Livers for Transplantation in the United States: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal article Ann Surg · November 1, 2023 OBJECTIVE: To compare conventional low-temperature storage of transplant donor livers [static cold storage (SCS)] with storage of the organs at physiological body temperature [normothermic machine perfusion (NMP)]. BACKGROUND: The high success rate of live ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adeno-associated virus mediates gene transduction after static cold storage treatment in rodent lung transplantation.

Conference J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · July 2023 OBJECTIVE: Adeno-associated virus is a clinically used gene therapy vector but has not been studied in lung transplantation. We sought to determine the efficacy of adeno-associated virus delivery during static cold storage via the airway versus the pulmona ... Full text Link to item Cite

(376) AAV9 PD-L1 Mediated Immunodulation of Donor Graft in Rat Lung Allotransplantation

Conference The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation · April 2023 Full text Cite

Sterile inflammation in liver transplantation.

Journal article Front Med (Lausanne) · 2023 Sterile inflammation is the immune response to damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released during cell death in the absence of foreign pathogens. In the setting of solid organ transplantation, ischemia-reperfusion injury results in mitochondria-m ... Full text Link to item Cite

Orthotopic Transplantation of the Full-length Porcine Intestine After Normothermic Machine Perfusion.

Journal article Transplant Direct · November 2022 UNLABELLED: Successful intestinal transplantation is currently hindered by graft injury that occurs during procurement and storage, which contributes to postoperative sepsis and allograft rejection. Improved graft preservation may expand transplantable gra ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Differential vascular resistance of the jejunum and ileum during machine perfusion

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · January 2022 Link to item Cite

Two Compartment Evaluation of Liver Grafts During Acellular Room Temperature Machine Perfusion (acRTMP) in a Rat Liver Transplant Model.

Journal article Front Med (Lausanne) · 2022 BACKGROUND: Subnormothermic machine perfusion (SNMP) of liver grafts is currently less clinically developed than normothermic and hypothermic approaches, but may have logistical advantages. At intermediate temperatures, the oxygen demand of the graft is lo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gene Therapy: Will the Promise of Optimizing Lung Allografts Become Reality?

Journal article Front Immunol · 2022 Lung transplantation is the definitive therapy for patients living with end-stage lung disease. Despite significant progress made in the field, graft survival remains the lowest of all solid organ transplants. Additionally, the lung has among the lowest of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Complement-targeting therapeutics for ischemia-reperfusion injury in transplantation and the potential for ex vivo delivery.

Journal article Front Immunol · 2022 Organ shortages and an expanding waitlist have led to increased utilization of marginal organs. All donor organs are subject to varying degrees of IRI during the transplant process. Extended criteria organs, including those from older donors and organs don ... Full text Link to item Cite

Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma after Downstaging or Bridging Therapy with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors.

Journal article Cancers (Basel) · December 15, 2021 Liver transplantation offers excellent outcomes for patients with HCC. For those who initially present within the Milan criteria, bridging therapy is essential to control disease while awaiting liver transplant. For those who present beyond the Milan crite ... Full text Link to item Cite

Point-of-Care Assessment of DCD Livers During Normothermic Machine Perfusion in a Nonhuman Primate Model.

Journal article Hepatol Commun · September 2021 Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) provides clinicians an opportunity to assess marginal livers before transplantation. However, objective criteria and point-of-care (POC) biomarkers to predict risk and guide decision making are lacking. In this investig ... Full text Link to item Cite

A simple scoring system to estimate perioperative mortality following liver resection for primary liver malignancy-the Hepatectomy Risk Score (HeRS).

Journal article Hepatobiliary Surg Nutr · June 2021 BACKGROUND: Selection of the optimal treatment modality for primary liver cancers remains complex, balancing patient condition, liver function, and extent of disease. In individuals with preserved liver function, liver resection remains the primary approac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Donor-Recipient Height Mismatch Is Associated With Decreased Survival in Pediatric-to-Adult Liver Transplant Recipients.

Journal article Liver Transpl · February 2021 Liver grafts from pediatric donors represent a small fraction of grafts transplanted into adult recipients, and their use in adults requires special consideration of donor size to prevent perioperative complications. In the past, graft weight or volume rat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outcomes in Kidney Transplantation Between Veterans Affairs and Civilian Hospitals: Considerations in the Context of the MISSION Act.

Journal article Ann Surg · September 1, 2020 OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare kidney transplantation outcomes between Veterans Affairs (VA) and non-VA transplant centers. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Transplant care at the VA has previously been scrutinized due to geographic and systematic barriers. The r ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sirtuin-1 expression and activity is diminished in aged liver grafts.

Journal article Sci Rep · July 17, 2020 The cellular mechanisms underlying impaired function of aged liver grafts have not been fully elucidated, but mitochondrial dysfunction appears to be contributory. Sirtuin1 has been identified as a key mediator of mitochondrial recovery following ischemia- ... Full text Link to item Cite