Stem-cell approach could reduce need for transplant immunosuppression

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By Olivia Bowthorpe

A technique to reduce the need for long-term immunosuppression in transplant patients has shown promising early results, researchers in Spain have reported.

The method combines an organ transplant with a transplant of blood-forming stem cells from the same donor, using a process to limit the risk of the donor immune cells attacking the recipient.

The technique was used on two patients and neither experienced organ rejection for more than five years, and both were able to reduce their medication to just one drug, according to the case report in Communications Medicine.

Dr Antonio Pérez-Martínez, head of the Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Department at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, and colleagues explained that long term immunosuppression carries a risk of infections, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

One patient, a 15-year-old boy who had previously experienced multiple transplant rejections, received a 'multivisceral' transplant, including intestine, liver and pancreas, together with a kidney from a deceased donor. The second patient was a 49-year-old woman given her fourth kidney transplant, this time from her brother.