Transplanting A Nut Allergy

Gavinsblog writes "New Scientist is reporting that a man who received a liver transplant from a donor who died of anaphylactic shock, went on to develop a life-threatening nut allergy himself. The man had no history of a nut allergy suffered an anaphylactic reaction to a cashew nut 25 days after receiving the liver. Should the liver have read 'Warning: may contain traces of nut'?"

Comments

Re:Wow...

[Simon Field]

It would be interesting to see if the reaction goes away as the IgE is flushed out of the donated liver, or if it is a new learned response in the recipient.

It is hard to tell from one or two cases, since adult onset nut allergies are not uncommon. It could be a complete coincidence that the man got an allergy to the same thing that killed the donor. But the large amounts of IgE that would be in the liver of someone who died of anaphylaxis could be causing a temporary allergic response to nuts.

I would have thought that the immuno-suppressants needed to prevent rejection would have lowered the susceptibility to allergens. Perhaps the new drugs are more targetted these days. Or maybe the combination of immune-system altering drugs and the IgE from the liver caused the problem in the first place.