Promising new treatment helps prevent organ rejection

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Injecting bone marrow from an organ donor allowed kidney transplant patients to be weaned of the intense immunosuppressant drugs usually needed to prevent organ rejection, a study published Thursday found.

The transplanted bone marrow produces immune cells which are tolerant of the donated organ even when it is a genetic mismatch, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"We are very encouraged by our initial success in inducing tolerance across the HLA (mismatched human leukocyte antigen protein) barrier, something that has been a major goal of transplant immunology for years," said senior author David Sachs, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Transplantation Biology Research Center.

"While we...