PET PET
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
Become a Friend Donate
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements
PETBioNewsNewsStem cell therapy hope for kidney transplant patients

BioNews

Stem cell therapy hope for kidney transplant patients

Published 12 December 2012 posted in News and appears in BioNews 628

Author

George Frodsham

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).

Scientists have found a new method of suppressing the automatic rejection of donated kidneys in transplant patients, by using the donor's stem cells. In a small trial carried out at Stanford University, California, eight out of 12 patients were able to stop taking anti-rejection drugs, which are usually a lifelong necessity, following this treatment....

Scientists have found a new method of suppressing the automatic rejection of donated kidneys in transplant patients, by using the donor's stem cells. In a small trial carried out at Stanford University, California, eight out of 12 patients were able to stop taking anti-rejection drugs, which are usually a lifelong necessity, following this treatment.

Soon after their transplants, each of the patients in the study underwent a procedure where their lymph nodes, spleen and thymus were given a dose of radiation to kill some of their immune system's white blood cells. This was in addition to the patient taking the standard course of two anti-rejection drugs.

About ten days after the radiation treatment, the patient was injected with stem cells from the donor's blood. They then differentiate into white blood cells and become part of the recipient's immune system, and will not attack the new kidney. If the stem cells mix favourably with the patient's own cells, the patient can be taken off the first anti-rejection drug after a month, and the second after six months.

'Those eight that we've taken off the drugs, they've had no rejection, no evidence of the kidney being damaged', said Dr Samuel Strober, the immunologist who is leading the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

All of the eight patients treated successfully have now been off the immunosuppressant drugs completely for over a year, including one for over three years. Dr Strober, explained the other four have 'failed to meet our strict drug withdrawal criteria', but have suffered no side effects from the treatment.

Currently, all transplant patients need the drug course to prevent their body from rejecting the donor organ. This is the case even if the donor is a perfect match in terms of surface markers — called HLA (human leukocyte antigen) antigen — which reduces the risk of the donated kidney being rejected. However, they can pose problems in the long-term.

'While they help ward off rejection of the new organ by the patient's own immune system, these drugs carry their own risk of side effects, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer', said Dr Strober.

All the patients in this on-going clinical trial are perfect matches with their donors, but the work is now being expanded to include patients with mismatched donors, where only 50 percent of their HLA antigens match the patient's.

'Our preclinical lab results show that we can use mismatched recipients as well as matched, and that gives us confidence to move ahead', added Dr Strober.

However, Dr Flavio Vincenti, a kidney transplant expert at the University of California, San Francisco, cautioned against over-optimism. He said it was not known whether the delicate balance of the immune system can be maintained in the long-term. 'I would caution patients and physicians that this gives us maybe an idea on a mechanism of action, but from a practical point of view, it will have very limited application', Dr Vincenti told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Related Articles

Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
CC BY 4.0
Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
News
22 August 2014 • 2 minutes read

Thymus grown in mice following cell transplant

by Dr Jamie Heather

Researchers from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh, UK, have for the first time produced complete working organs from genetically 'reprogrammed' cells. Engineered cells were inserted into adult mice, where they grew into what appeared to be functional thymuses....

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
28 February 2013 • 2 minutes read

Canadian regulators grant world's first approval for a stem cell drug

by Vicki Kay

The world's first stem cell drug has been approved by Canadian authorities. US biotech company, Osiris Therapeutics, has been given the go-ahead to market its drug, Prochymal, for the treatment of graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) in children who fail to respond to steroids....

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
13 February 2013 • 2 minutes read

Stem cell treatment counters kidney rejection in early trial

by Dr Rebecca Robey

Stem cell therapy may remove the need for organ transplant recipients to have lifelong drug treatment to combat the risk of rejection, which would dramatically improve patients' quality of life...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
News
10 January 2013 • 1 minute read

Skin stem cells have potential to fight cancer

by Rosemary Paxman

A new technique to transform skin cells into immune cells has been used in the laboratory to hunt for and attack cancer, report scientists after a proof-of-principle study...

Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
CC BY 4.0
Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
News
14 November 2012 • 2 minutes read

Stem cells, pigs and replacement organs

by Dr Rebecca Robey

Scientists in Japan have reported the production of mice that have rat's organs. They suggest that one day this technique could be used to grow spare human organs in another species such as pigs, easing organ shortages and reducing long waiting times for transplants...

Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
CC BY 4.0
Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
News
29 October 2012 • 1 minute read

Stem cells used to create 'fetal kidneys'

by Dr Rosie Morley

Scientists at Edinburgh University have grown kidney structures in the laboratory in a step they hope will lead to organs being grown for transplant patients from their own stem cells...

PET BioNews
News
9 June 2009 • 2 minutes read

Organ transplants from pigs within a decade?

by Dr Charlotte Maden

New organs from 'designer pigs' could be ready to use in humans within a decade. The hope is to transplant the organs into humans who require them to help solve the problem of the shortage of transplant organs. Lord Robert Winston, the fertility expert from Imperial College...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
9 June 2009 • 2 minutes read

Stem cell hope for genetic kidney disease

by BioNews

A team of US scientists has managed to successfully treat mice with symptoms of a genetic kidney disease, using bone marrow stem cells. The researchers, based at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, transplanted stem cells into animals affected by Alport syndrome, and saw a significant improvement in their condition...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
9 June 2009 • 1 minute read

Kidney regenerated by stem cells

by BioNews

Collaborative research between scientists from the UK Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the Imperial College School of Medicine, London, has shown for the first time that bone marrow cells are able to turn into kidney cells. The researchers believe that this discovery will help pave the way to treating kidney...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

« Faroe Islands to be the first to sequence an entire nation

Data-Label The UK's Leading Supplier Of Medical Labels & Asset Labels

RetiringDentist.co.uk The UK's Leading M&A Company.

Find out how you can advertise here
easyfundraising
amazon

This month in BioNews

  • Popular
  • Recent
8 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Placenta and organ formation observed in mouse embryo models

8 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Lower hormone doses may improve IVF egg quality

8 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Boosting muscle cell production of gene therapy proteins

1 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

First UK medical guidelines issued for trans fertility preservation

1 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Male age has more impact on IVF birth rate than previously thought

15 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Call to end ban on HIV-positive partner gamete 'donation'

15 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Melanoma invades new tissues using nerve cell gene

15 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Exceeding alcohol limits could damage DNA and accelerate ageing

15 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Blood cell gene mutations affect mitochondria, increasing cardiovascular disease risk

15 August 2022 • 2 minutes read

Jumping gene helps immune system fight viruses

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
PET PET

PET is an independent charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Navigation

  • About Us
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • BioNews
  • Events
  • Engagement
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us

BioNews

  • News
  • Comment
  • Reviews
  • Elsewhere
  • Topics
  • Glossary
  • Newsletters

Other

  • My Account
  • Subscribe

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856