clues to kidney transplant success

LONDON: European scientists have found a full range of markers in the
blood of kidney transplant patients which could predict whether their
new organ will be a success and whether they need large amounts of
medication to help it.

The researchers said the finding may help
doctors to give more personalized care to transplant patients and to
modify the amount of powerful immunosuppressant drugs they have to take
to prevent their bodies from rejecting a new kidney.

The
scientists, led by Maria Hernandez-Fuentes at King's College London,
studied various groups of kidney transplant patients in Europe,
including 11 patients who had stopped taking their drugs after the
transplant but did not reject the donor organ since they appeared to
have a natural "tolerance" for it.

They carried out detailed tests of blood samples and found differences in the immune systems particular to these patients.

Kidney
transplants are the most common type of major organ transplant
worldwide -- around 1,550 are carried out in Britain and around 18,000
in the United States every year.

The average lifespan of a
transplanted kidney is 12 years, rising to around 20 years in some
cases if the kidney is from a living donor.

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