For the first time, surgeons at Northwestern Medicine performed a double-lung transplant on a patient whose lungs were damaged by COVID-19. The patient, a Hispanic woman in her 20s, spent six weeks in the COVID ICU on a ventilator and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a life support machine that does the work of the heart and lungs.
Researchers suggest focusing on disparities to help identify which patients with a heart transplant may be at higher risk for a worse course of COVID-19 infection.
Using skin cells from human volunteers, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have created fully functional mini livers, which they then transplanted into rats. In this proof-of-concept experiment, the lab-made organs survived for four days inside their animal hosts.
In March 2020, Hackensack University Medical Center voluntarily inactivated its transplant list and put a hold on performing transplant surgeries due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Throughout the pandemic, Hackensack University Medical Center’s organ transplant physicians continued to provide care to transplant candidates and previous organ recipients through telehealth virtual visits. Hackensack University Medical Center made the decision to reactivate its transplant list and resume offering transplant procedures now that enhanced patient safety measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have been successfully implemented across all Hackensack Meridian Health facilities.
• In a study of patients with newly diagnosed kidney failure at 71 kidney centers in the UK, older age, additional illnesses, obesity, and lower socioeconomic status were associated with a lower likelihood of being put on transplant waiting list.
Skin cancer and skin infection are significantly more likely in solid organ transplant patients compared to patients with normal immune system function. Almost 40,000 organ transplants were performed in the United States in 2019, a 9% increase over 2018.
France and the United States have experienced a tremendous reduction in the number of organ donations and transplant procedures since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By early April, transplant centers in both countries were conducting far fewer deceased donor transplants compared to just one month earlier, with the number of procedures dropping by 91 percent in France and 50 percent in the United States.
A new discovery in mice shows the innate immune system has "memory," previously thought to be a unique feature of the adaptive immune system. Blocking this memory prevented transplanted organs from being rejected, providing a way to more specific drugs that could lengthen organ transplant survival.
• Among adults with kidney failure who were referred for transplantation, 60% of black and 66% of white patients were waitlisted within the first year. Differences in socioeconomic status and comorbidities between black and white patients could explain up to 58% of the disparity in listing.
• Fewer black patients on transplant wait lists received transplants compared with white patients, but differences in socioeconomic status and comorbidities did not explain this disparity.
Obese mice with unhealthy lifestyles gain significantly less weight and avoid type 2 diabetes when they receive viruses transplanted from the stool of lean mice. These are the findings of a new University of Copenhagen study.
Researchers from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center received a $2.8 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to help develop a blood-based test to improve the selection and prioritization for patients with liver cancer who need a liver transplantation.
• In an analysis of information on adults who began treatment for kidney failure at any Georgia, North Carolina, or South Carolina dialysis facility, the distance from a patient’s residence to the nearest transplant center did not appear to affect the likelihood of transplant-related referrals and evaluations.
Irvine, Calif., March 23, 2020 – Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have shown that they can give cells a short-term boost of energy through mitochondrial transplantation. The team’s study, published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that mitochondrial transplantation could one day be employed to cure various cardiovascular, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders – and even offer a new approach to the treatment of cancer.
Inspired by a tactic cancer cells use to evade the immune system, University of Pittsburgh researchers have engineered tiny particles that can trick the body into accepting transplanted tissue as its own, while leaving the immune system intact.
• In a study of kidney transplant recipients, the composition of certain immune cells in the blood 1 year after kidney transplantation was linked with a patient’s subsequent risk of kidney transplant failure.
In the first such procedures in Tennessee, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has successfully used technology to bring two donor hearts that stopped beating back to life before transplanting them into patients.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announces its most recent awards and appointments for the institution’s physicians, scientists, nurses, and staff.
Mount Sinai researchers have discovered a way to enhance the potency of blood-forming stem cells, potentially opening the door to a new approach for bone marrow transplantation.
• Survival after kidney transplantation during childhood has improved over the last 40 years in Australia.
• Survival rates improved primality due to decreases in deaths from cardiovascular disease and infection.
As células-tronco mesenquimais do tecido adiposo e da medula óssea são amplamente utilizadas em ensaios terapêuticos por suas propriedades anti-inflamatórias, mas uma nova pesquisa da Mayo Clinic descobriu que as células hepáticas podem ser de maior valor.
ينتشر استخدام الخلايا السَّدَويَّة اللحمية المتوسطية من النسيج الدهني والنخاع العظمي في التجارب العلاجية، وذلك بسبب مزاياها المُضادة للالتهابات، ولكن البحث الحديث في Mayo Clinic اكتشف أن خلايا الكَبِد قد تكون ذات قيمة أكبر.
Mesenchymale Stromazellen aus Fettgewebe und Knochenmark werden wegen ihrer entzündungshemmenden Eigenschaften häufig in therapeutischen Studien eingesetzt, doch neue Forschungsergebnisse von Mayo Clinic zeigen, dass Leberzellen möglicherweise von größerem Nutzen sind.
Les cellules mésenchymateuses stromales provenant du tissu adipeux et de la moelle osseuse sont largement utilisées dans les essais thérapeutiques pour leurs qualités anti-inflammatoires. Mais de nouvelles recherches menées par Mayo Clinic montrent que les cellules du foie pourraient représenter une valeur plus importante.
Forscher von Mayo Clinic haben entdeckt, dass subtile Strukturmerkmale in Nieren von lebenden Spendern, die nur mit einem Mikroskop gesehen werden können, auf das Risiko für eine Abstoßung beim Empfänger hindeuten können.
اكتشف الباحثون لدى Mayo Clinic أن سِمات بنيوية دقيقة لا يمكن رؤيتها إلا بالمِجهر في الكُلى المأخوذة من المتبرِّعين قد تُنبئ بخطورة فشل زراعة الكُلى للمُتلقِّين. وقد نُشِرت نتائج الدراسة على الإنترنت في مجلَّة الجمعية الأمريكية لطب الكُلى.
Des chercheurs de Mayo Clinic ont découvert que de subtiles caractéristiques que l’on peut observer uniquement au microscope au niveau de la structure des reins provenant de donneurs vivants, pourraient prédire le risque d'échec des greffes chez les receveurs.
Los investigadores de Mayo Clinic descubrieron que algunas características estructurales sutiles de los riñones de los donantes vivos, las cuales solo es posible ver en el microscopio, pueden predecir el riesgo del fracaso del trasplante en el receptor.
Pesquisadores da Mayo Clinic descobriram que características estruturais sutis nos rins de doadores vivos que só podem ser vistas com um microscópio podem ajudar a prever o risco de transplantes malsucedidos nos receptores. Os achados foram publicados virtualmente no Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (Revista da Sociedade Americana de Nefrologia).
• An analysis compared transplant recipients who received kidneys through national kidney paired donation and those who received kidneys from other living donors (such as relatives, friends or other paired exchange mechanisms).
• Despite a higher number of risk factors for poor outcomes in the kidney paired donation group, recipients in the two groups had similar rates of organ failure and mortality over a median follow-up of 3.7 years.
Legendary heart-lung transplant surgeon, researcher, and professor Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, MD, today was honored with the 2020 Earl Bakken Scientific Achievement Award from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons during the organization’s 56th Annual Meeting.
• Subtle structural features of donated kidneys—which were observed through biopsies taken at the time of donation—were associated with the longevity of organs after they were transplanted.
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that subtle structural features in kidneys from living donors that can only be seen with a microscope may predict the risk of transplant failure in recipients. The findings are published online in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
• In analyses of biopsies of deceased donor kidneys, a repeat biopsy often showed very different findings than the initial biopsy, calling into question decisions to decline an organ based on the initial biopsy findings.
• Although the first biopsy findings were not associated with post-transplant outcomes, findings from the second biopsies—which were performed in a relatively standardized manner at one organ procurement organization and read by the same group of pathologists—provided useful information about how well the organ functioned after transplantation.
Las células mesenquimales del estroma procedentes del tejido graso y de la médula ósea se emplean ampliamente en ensayos terapéuticos por sus cualidades antiinflamatorias, pero un nuevo estudio de Mayo Clinic descubre que las células hepáticas podrían ser más valiosas.
Mesenchymal stromal cells from fat tissue and bone marrow are widely used in therapeutic trials for their anti-inflammatory qualities, but new Mayo Clinic research finds that liver cells may be of greater value.
The study, published in Liver Transplantation, finds that liver mesenchymal stromal cells have immunoregulatory qualities that make them more effective than similar cells derived from adipose, or fat, tissue and bone marrow.
Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center today announced that it became the first hospital in the New Jersey to perform a kidney transplant with a kidney preserved at its own Organ Preservation Center using the LifePort Kidney Transporter, an ex vivo hypothermic machine preservation technology. Hypothermic machine preservation is a cutting-edge, life-saving technology that increases a kidney’s viability and lifespan, improving patient outcomes.
A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that extremely rare, harmful genetic mutations present in healthy donors’ stem cells — though not causing health problems in the donors — may be passed on to cancer patients receiving stem cell transplants, potentially creating health problems for the recipients. Among the concerns are heart damage, graft-versus-host disease and possible new leukemias.
Researchers from the University Hospital Zurich, ETH Zurich, Wyss Zurich and the University of Zurich have developed a machine that repairs injured human livers and keeps them alive outside the body for one week.
A new Johns Hopkins Medicine-led study provides the strongest evidence to date that hundreds of deceased donor kidneys, discarded each year after being deemed not suitable under current medical criteria, can be transplanted safely and effectively.
• In a study of kidney transplant recipients, those with higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet were less likely to experience kidney function loss.
Four University of Chicago Medicine patients who received rare triple-organ transplants are encouraging people to register as organ and tissue donors, hoping to raise awareness about giving the gift of life during a holiday season focused on giving.
Erika Hosey, a cardiovascular technician at University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center, ended the year by giving a life-changing gift to a patient in need. While performing a routine cardiac stress test, she drummed up a conversation. She learned that her patient, Denise Butvin, had kidney disease and needed transplant surgery.
“Erika just blurted out…I’ll give you my kidney,” said Butvin. “I was in shock. I couldn’t believe this was real.”
While Butvin is a positive person, she has been through an emotional rollercoaster of ups and downs and on waitlists in Ohio and Pennsylvania for five years. Her family and friends were not an organ match. Both her sister and father were on dialysis for many years and passed away from kidney disease, so she knew how pressing this transplant surgery was.
Hosey started the process the next day, and after a few weeks of testing turned out to be a perfect donor match. “To be a kidney donor match for someone is really a shot in the dark,” she