Cell injections could train the body to accept a transplanted organ

Health 2 August 2019
transplant operation
Organ donation without the risk of rejection could become a reality

Craig Stennett / Alamy Stock Photo






Remembering cells


Hering’s team induced a condition similar to type 1 diabetes in five macaques by killing insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. They then treated the sick monkeys with a transplant of pancreas cells from donor monkeys.

To see if long-term anti-rejection drugs could be avoided, the sick monkeys were given infusions of ECDI-treated blood cells from the donors, both one week before the transplant, and one day after. They also received anti-rejection drugs for three weeks.

Successful transplant

Even when the anti-rejection drugs were stopped, the pancreas cell transplants stayed healthy and produced insulin for two years in one animal and one year in the rest, at which point they were killed so their tissues could be examined.

This particular form of tissue donation is currently quite a rare treatment for people with type 1 diabetes because of the need for lifelong anti-rejection drugs. Most people prefer to treat their diabetes with insulin injections instead.

The approach could also be used in people who receive a kidney from a living donor, says Hering. In the UK, about a third of kidney transplants come from people who are still alive, usually relatives or friends, but sometimes a stranger.

It is also possible to donate part of the liver while you are still alive, as this organ regenerates almost completely. And a small number of people have donated part of their lung.

Journal reference: Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11338-y

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