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This is very good news here. It seems that doctors have combined a
bone marrow (stem cell) transplant and a kidney transplant to make a sick kidney patient into a healthy one. As many of you know, if you get a transplant of any kind, the anti- rejection medication one must take so the body doesn't reject the transplanted organ severely limits the person and causes many side effects and complications. Now, thanks to this discovery, it seems like they are well on their way to finding a method so that transplant patients will no longer have to take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives:
At 12, Jennifer Searl (sur-hl) had a kidney transplant. From then on, she traded one health problem for another as the anti-rejection medications reeked havoc on her body."I had a very big problem with the kind of disfiguring growth on my legs and feet -- so bad that by the time I got to college, I really couldn't walk."From not being able to walk, to running marathons. That's the progress Jennifer made thanks to a second kidney transplant. It was done using a new procedure that eliminated more than half of her post-transplant medication."It's like a dream come true for me, basically."Doctor David Sachs and his team are testing out the new technique.
Patients who undergo a kidney transplant receive a bone marrow transplant during the same surgery."We have to eliminate the existing immune system first in order to train the new immune system."Doctors say the additional bone marrow transplant tricks the immune system into thinking the new kidney is part of the patient's own body, recognizing donor and host cells as its own."The patient doesn't need to take immuno-suppressant drugs to prevent rejection. There is no rejection because that transplant is considered by the immune system as part of the patient's own body."For Jennifer, the second transplant using this technique has provided a second chance at life -- a life without debilitating side effects.FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard University School of Medicine Transplantation Biology Research Center http://massgeneral.org/transplant Interested study participants: (617) 726-3706 To see the full article, click here