Transplantation is the act of transferring cells, tissues, or organs (e.g. kidney, liver, heart, lung, or pancreas) from a donorto recipient who has a malfunction of an organ system. However our body’s immune system acts like a barrier to transplantation as a routine medical treatment.
The immune system in our body is built innately with elaborate and effective mechanisms to combat foreign agents. These mechanisms cause the rejection of transplanted organs, which are recognized as foreign by the recipient’s immune system.
Now, a team of researchers from University of Cincinnati (UC)suggest that a novel pre-operative drug therapy reduces antibodies in kidney patients with greater success than with traditional methods thereby increasing the patients’ candidacy for kidney transplantation and decrease the likelihood of organ rejection.
The findings of this three-year clinical trial led by transplant researchers, titled “Prospective Iterative Trail of Proteasome Inhibitor-Based Desensitization”will be published in the January 2015 edition of the American Journal of Transplantation.
The antibodies or the immunoglobulins are produced by the body’s immune system to protect against infections. They are Y-shaped proteins which act as a major barrier to transplantation.