Extracellular vescicles and lung transplantation: new prospective in the evaluation of injury and function of the graft

lung transplantation (LuTX) is a consolidated surgical therapy of end-stage pulmonary failure when maximal medical therapy fails. To assess the quality of the graft of the donor, chest x-ray, arterial gas analysis and smoking history are currently used, but often these factors do not allow a proper evaluation of the real cellular damage. In the donor, aspiration of gastric content, brain-death, or initial intensive care infections affect transplant outcome especially in the first 72 hours. Furthermore, ischemia-reperfusion lung injury (IRI) has a key role in the development of primary grafts dysfunction (PGD).