Drug Metabolism, Drug Interactions, and Drug-Induced Liver Injury in Living Donor Liver Transplant Patients

Abstract

Living donor liver transplant (LDLT) fills a critically needed gap in the number of livers available for transplant. However, little is known about the functional recovery of the liver in the donor and in the recipient after surgery. Given that both donor and recipients are treated with several drugs, it is important to characterize the time course of recovery of hepatic synthetic, metabolic, and excretory function in these patients. In the absence of data from LDLT, information on the effect of liver disease on the pharmacokinetics of medications can be used as guidance for drug dosing in LDLT patients.

Keywords: Cytochrome P450; Drug metabolism; Hepatic regeneration; Hepatotoxicity; Living donor liver transplantation; Pharmacokinetics.