Till date during organ transplantations, when an organ is donated by a genetically unrelated donor (or simply who is not a family member), the chances of the organ being accepted by the body are very less, as our body never allows any foreign substance into it.
To overcome this problem, scientists and researches developed drugs that suppresses the patient's immune system (body's defence system), due to which the organ forcefully gets entry into the body.
Although by this method, the organ performs the required task, but more adverse side effects arises. As the immunity suppressor drugs weakens the body's defence mechanism, many infectious pathogens gets opportunity to enter and affect the body.
Finally, here comes a mechanism which will even eliminate the need of these anti-rejection drugs.
"There's a reason to hope that these patients will be off drugs for the rest of their lives", said Dr. David Sachs of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the research published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
The treatment mainly confuses the body, by adding some extra elements in the body's defence system itself.
Initially some immune suppressing drugs are given to the patient and then bone marrow from the same donor who gave the organ is also transplanted into the patients body. The stem cells from the marrow reprogram the body by allowing new immune cells to grow that dont try to attack the donated organ.
In one experiment, four of five kidney recipients were off immune-suppressing medicines up to five years later.`
But as this all is still in its initial steps, so the results doesnt mean that it is safe for current transplant patients to go off their medicines, if the process is not done with proper knowledge it may be proven fatal too...
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