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Trial Results Indicate Potential for Organ Transplantation Without Long-Term Immunosuppression

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PITTSBURGH — Giving living donor liver transplant recipients an infusion of immune cells derived from their donor a week before transplantation is feasible, safe — and may lead to recipients being successfully weaned off immunosuppressant medications without rejecting the transplanted organ.

The early-stage clinical trial results by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists, reported today in Science Translational Medicine, point to a path that may spare organ transplant recipients from the serious side effects of long-term immunosuppressant use, which can include cancer, diabetes, kidney failure and susceptibility to infections. Read more from UPMC.

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MGH opens first-of-its-kind center to eliminate lifelong immunosuppression after organ transplant

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Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health system, officially opened the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance, the first-of-its kind center in the world dedicated to preventing organ rejection after transplant surgery without the use of lifelong immunosuppressive medications. Immunosuppressive medications prevent the immune system from rejecting a transplanted organ, but come with serious side effects, increasing the chance of infections and other illnesses like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Read the complete article in News Medical Life Sciences.

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New kidney transplant approach could eliminate need for lifelong immune drugs

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“These kidneys are going to last forever,” one researcher said.

Three children who have undergone kidney transplants in California will likely be spared from ever having to take anti-rejection medication, because of an innovative technique that eliminates the need for lifelong immunosuppression, ground-breaking new research suggests.

Scientists at Stanford Medicine detailed the cases Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. All three children have an extremely rare genetic disease called Schimke immuno-osseous dysplasia, or SIOD, that often destroys a person’s ability to fight off infection and leads to kidney failure. In each case, a parent donated stem cells taken from bone marrow, as well as a kidney. Read the full story from NBC News.

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