Experimental research on organ rejection  finally possible thanks to new solution

Why we write about this topic:

Every year, 15,000 kidney transplants take place in Europe. However, half of all donor kidneys are rejected within 15 years. Often resulting in serious complications. Thanks to this new method, for the first time researchers can conduct experiments around organ rejection to develop better treatments. That is why Innovation Origins selected this post.

Researchers from the King’s College London successfully modelled transplant rejection in human kidneys. The discovery may allow scientists to investigate new mechanisms and test treatment strategies for transplant rejection outside of the human body, writes the university in a press release.

A significant concern after a person receives an organ transplant from a donor is antibody mediated rejection (AMR) – a process by which antibodies in the recipient can cause their immune systems to reject and damage the donor organ. This can lead to loss of the transplanted organ and even death in some cases. King’s researchers have today published a clinically relevant, reproducible, and translational model of AMR using human kidneys and warm machine perfusion technology, for what is believed to be the first time.

It has been difficult to create human experimental models of rejection and as a result, researchers have had little opportunity to investigate therapies that might reduce the risk of this devastating complication and to elucidate new mechanisms. The new model may allow researchers to investigate and test organ specific targeted therapy.

Study

By connecting a human organ (offered for research purposes) to a bypass machine and circulating warm blood-based solutions through the organ, then deliberately adding antibodies and complement and coagulation factors to the circuit, the researchers can artificially induce and simulate AMR. In so doing they may be able to study transplant rejection mechanisms more closely and – it is hoped – gain greater insight into how this condition may be prevented.

“The development of an experimental human model of transplant rejection using warm blood-based solutions may allow testing of targeted organ specific therapy and to gain further mechanistic insight into this process”, says Pankaj Chandak, lead author of the study. “We may then also investigate repair and regeneration interventions in these rejected, injured organs. This could then hopefully be used to help real patients” The authors believe the insights gained from this model and its set up could also be transferable to other solid organ transplant types.

The full paper was published in eBioMedicine.

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