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Drug-Free Organ Transplants From Unrelated Donors
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)."
My cousin/sister needed a transplant and it was a bear finding a donor. And even then she had to take all kinds of anti-rejection drugs with really nasty side effects.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
in other news, the sale of claw-foot bathtubs and bagged ice has seen a dramatic increase
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It's his half sister, birthed by his aunt. Interestingly, his cousin is also his wife. They like to keep it in the family, you see.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
My father-in-law lived more than 20 years after a liver transplant and required medication to prevent rejection. I believe the initial anti-rejection drug changed a few years after the implant, but he still was required to take daily medication.
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.
My Daughter had a bone marrow transplant at the age of 18 months old and has been off immunosuppressants since 30 months of age. (She is currently 7 years of age with no rejection issues and no medications at all -- 100% cured, mild chimerism)
I guess I thought that was common? Her donor was unrelated, but had a 10/10 match on HLA. That might be the magic. This study lists it working for a HLA mismatched recipient.
Of course, I only have the knowledge you get when your daughter is going through the transplant process, not all the unrelated stuff that doesn't pertain to her actual condition.
Do you Gentoo!?
I'm going to hang this off of your post because it's near the top of the thread:
It's fast, easy and FREE to register as a marrow donor. They ask for an optional $100 donation to cover the cost of the test, but it's not required. The registry test involves swabbing the inside of your mouth, at home. It takes about 40 seconds (4 swabs @ 10 seconds each). It's completely painless and there are no needles or doctors involved.
Join the Marrow Registry - http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx
Obviously, registering to become a donor is an important and serious decision to make, but they're short on donors of people not of white/European descent. There's a high likelihood chance you'll never be asked to donate, but there's a 1 in 300,000 chance that you could save a life.
moox. for a new generation.