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New Discovery May End Transplant Rejection

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-to-get-that-extra-liver-you've-always-wanted dept.

mmmscience writes with this excerpt from the Examiner: "Big news in the medical world: scientists in Australia have found a way to stop the body from attacking organ transplants, greatly decreasing the possibility of organ rejection. ... When a new tissue is introduced, one's immune system kicks into overdrive, sending out cells known as killer T cells to attack and destroy the unknown tissue. ... Professor Jonathan Sprent and Dr. Kylie Webster from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research focused on a different type of T cells — known as regulatory T cells (Treg) — in this study. Tregs are capable of quieting the immune system, stopping the killer T cells from seeking out and attacking foreign objects."

4 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Organlegging by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This will make organlegging possible. If you can just grab any kidney off the street and use it to replace a failing one, people will.

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  2. About to donate... by jdpars · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As someone about to donate a kidney this summer, I really hope they work on this research more. Donor matching is incredibly difficult, and the risk of rejection poses issues not only with the health of the recipient (though that's obviously the major issue), but also with the psychological health of the donor. A failed donation can make you feel like crap.

  3. Allergies? by MBoDot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if this could help in regards to allergies? I.e. stop the immune system from "reacting" too much?

  4. Re:So they're doing another type of immunosupressi by furby076 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And in those 2-3 weeks they keep the person in a steril room devoid of any potential bacteria/virus' that could harm the person.

    Hopefully they will be able to run positive clinical trials in the future. So far this is only effective on mice on relatively simple procedures (skin grafts, and pancreatic transfers). Kidneys, hearts, lungs are huge deals. I'm assuming if this hurdle is passed the doner would only need to have a blood-type match? That would be awesome and would make the waiting list that much simpler.

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