A simple and inexpensive membrane "lung" for small organ perfusion.

A disposable coil of thin-walled Silastic tubing, permeable to oxygen and carbon dioxide, functioned as a "lung" for perfusion of isolated rat liver. This "lung," which can be easily assembled from laboratory supplies, has a number of advantages over devices that utilize large air-liquid interfaces for gas exchange. Rates of hepatic lipoprotein triglyceride secretion, comparable to those obtained with more complex oxygenation systems, are achieved with this simple device.