Illustration: Transplantation surgery. (Image: People Magazine Pakistan)

Study: Research to tackle organ rejection after kidney transplant

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Medical and Health
Aug 01, 2019
2059
When a patient is no longer willing to do hemodialysis, there is only one way out, a kidney transplant. While kidney transplant surely promises a way out from hemodialysis and addition of life stature to the patient, there is another problem waiting. Most of the time, patients – having undergone transplantation surgery – have to face a harsh truth that their body is against it.

In other words, the second biggest drawback in kidney transplant is the possibility of body intolerance toward transplantation. Imagine having to wait on the long list while fighting for your kidney only to find out that your body rejects it.

The consequence of rejection is the dependence on immunosuppressive drugs to restrict patients’ bodies from fighting the new kidney. Statistics from the U.S said that about 103,000 patients are queuing for kidney transplantation. In 2018, about 21,000 kidney transplants were operated.

However, worry no more! Researchers at the University of Kentucky Transplant Center, Lexington, Kentucky, U.S., are currently experimenting to enhance body tolerance toward transplanted organ. They are testing a process to be done before the transplantation surgery.

The researchers are extracting the patient’s cells and inserting it back to the patient’s body to generate an immunosuppressive system for the transplanted kidney. The extraction is through a process called leukapheresis, i.e., extracting white blood cells. The whole process aims to seek the right T-cell to prevent the body from attacking itself and the transplanted kidney.

Once the researchers got the right T-cell, they begin producing the duplicate to make a larger army of T-cell before reinserting it to the patient’s body after the transplantation is finished. Then, the patient will not have to worry about the rejection because the kidney already has its own immunosuppressive system.

The method, however, is unprecedented. Throughout the world, only dozens of health centers working on this method. The research aims to suppress or even eradicate the usage of immunosuppressive drugs; thus, improving the life quality of patients post-transplant. Should the method work, the researchers may aim for other organ tolerance research, not limited to the kidney.

Source: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190801/Researchc2a0seeks-to-fight-organ-rejection-in-kidney-transplant-patients.aspx

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