Results of a new study find that blood and bone marrow cells are beneficial for patients who have just had kidney transplants, so much so that needing to give them anti-supressive drugs is not as necessary.
Researchers state that by injecting the patients with blood and marrow cells, the body is sort of tricked into tolerating the new kidney, thus not having to rely as much on supressive drugs.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston analyzed 5 patients who had just underwent kidney transplants.
Over time 4 of those patients who received blood and marrow cells were weaned off their anti-supressive drugs altogether.
“While we need to study this approach in a larger group of patients before it is ready for broad clinical use, this is the first time that tolerance to a series of mismatched transplants has been intentionally and successfully induced,” said Dr. David Sachs, who helped lead the study.
In another study that was published, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers reported that in a 47 year old kidney transplant patient, the need to administer anti supressant drugs was reduced due to him receiving donated blood cells from his brother after receiving one of his kidneys.
“My body thinks my brother’s kidney is mine,” patient Larry Kowalski said in a statement.
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