Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Drug-Free Organ Transplants From Unrelated Donors

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-say-no dept.

ananyo writes "Researchers have for the first time managed to give patients a complete bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. The recipients were also able to accept kidneys from the same donors without the need for immunosuppressive drugs. Normally, such transplants would trigger graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) — an often deadly complication that occurs when immune cells from an unrelated donor attack the transplant recipient's tissue. The researchers report that five of eight people who underwent the treatment were able to stop all immunosuppressive therapy within a year after their kidney and stem-cell transplants, four of which came from unrelated donors (abstract)."

3 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. More medical break throughs please by geekoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    cause I don't want to die.... ever.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:More medical break throughs please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, what a nightmare. Imaging if the prison industry got so big that the government started putting all sorts of people in prison for non-violet crimes. Eventually so much money would be involved that politicians would start trying to outdo each other at being tough on crime and start a never ending cycle of increasing penalties. They might even take away a judge's power to decide what penalty someone faces by creating mandating sentences. Imagine if say 1% of the US population was in prison. 1 out of 100 adults! Science fiction is scary.

  2. Re:summary is wrong. by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    By drug free, they are referring to not requiring life-long treatment with immune suppressants. That's a REALLY big deal.