Experimental Technique May Free Some Transplant Patients From Anti-Rejection Drugs.

The Los Angeles Times  (3/8, Healy) reports, "Patients who are lucky enough to get a transplant for a failed organ usually face a lifetime on anti-rejection drugs, which are expensive, dangerous and not always effective." In the future, however, "those drugs may not be needed." According to a study  published March 7 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, "patients receiving an organ that's less than a perfect match can be protected against rejection by a second transplant -- this time of the organ donor's imperfectly matched stem cells."

        For the study, "researchers transplanted certain cells from the kidney donor's bone marrow along with the new organ," the AP  (3/8, Neergaard) reports. "Five of eight transplant recipients who tried the method so far were off immune-suppressing medication up to 2½ years later," investigators reported. Notably, "the technique worked for patients who didn't have well-matched or related donors."

        Bloomberg News  (3/8, Cortez) explains, "The breakthrough...mixed stem cells from the donor's infection-fighting immune system with the patient's natural immune system. The result enabled tissue from both to co-exist in the transplant patient without either being seen as 'foreign' by the immune system, researchers said." An accompanying editorial observed that the study's "results 'may potentially have an enormous, paradigm- shifting impact on solid-organ transplantation.'"

        Describing exactly how the process works, CNN  (3/8, Smith) details, "In order to circumvent the problems that come with a mismatched donor and recipient, researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Louisville harvest bone marrow stem cells from the kidney donor." Next, "those stem cells are...subjected to an 18-hour process in the lab to remove problematic cells thought to be responsible for rejection." Finally, "the stem cell concoction is then frozen and set aside for the kidney transplant recipient." The recipients undergo a regimen of low-dose radiation and chemotherapy designed to suppress their bone marrow to allow the new stem cells to mix with their own.

        HealthDay  (3/8, Dotinga) points out, "Essentially, the goal is to create a hybrid immune system -- part donor, part recipient -- in the bone marrow of the recipient. The marrow then creates cells in the immune system." The procedure is not inexpensive, however. "The extra cost per patient beyond the expense of the transplant is about $50,000." Now, according to the study's co-author, "the next step is to determine whether the procedure would work for other kinds of transplants."

        "The research team is now working to modify the approach so that it can be used when the transplanted kidney comes from a donor who has died," WebMD  (3/8, Boyles) notes. "About two-thirds of the roughly 17,000 kidney transplants performed in the US each year involve deceased donors."

        Also covering the story are Reuters  (3/8, Steenhuysen) and the Louisville Courier-Journal  (3/8, Ungar), and the ABC News  (3/8, Moisse) website.

        Normothermic Perfusion May Reduce Wait For Donor Kidneys. The UK's Telegraph  (3/8, Smith) reports that normothermic perfusion, a process that "'revives' kidneys from dead donors," may reverse "some of the damage done by keeping the kidney ice-cold while it is transported to the patient so it works better once implanted." The technique "also revives kidneys which are lower quality and would not normally be considered for transplant." To date, researchers in the UK have carried out 17 operations using the experimental technique. Experts hope the technique, if successful, could reduce the waiting list for donor kidneys by at least 10%.