Recipients of donated organs must take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives because the body’s antibodies recognize the new organ as a foreign object to be rejected. This is why 10-20% of recipients later have to have their organs removed, which they hoped would save their lives.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh recently published a study that successfully preserved donated organs without the need for anti-rejection drugs. The study involved 13 liver recipients. They were given regulatory dendritic cells from the donor a week before the transplant.
These cells can communicate with immune cells to reduce the organ recipient’s immune system’s response to antigens when needed. Initially, they were given anti-rejection drugs as usual for a year. Of the 13 participants, the researchers tried to wean 8 recipients off these drugs because their immune systems showed strong signs of tolerance to the new liver.
Of these 8, only 3 were able to stop taking anti-rejection drugs over the 3-year trial period. Although the study was not 100% successful, the data collected will be used to produce more effective treatments with the hope that in the future, recipients of donated organs will no longer need to take anti-rejection drugs.
The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature.
