Potential new means of avoiding transplant rejection developed

Scientists from UT Southwestern Medical Center have created a potential new method of helping donor adult blood stem cells to overcome transplant rejection.

A study has been conducted in which a special culture "cocktail" was created to support adult blood stem cells from humans and mice, leading to the discovery of immune inhibitors on their surfaces that protect them from attack.

By utilising a rise in the number of cultured blood stem cells, scientists were able to overcome the protein barrier that alerts the immune system to foreign incursions, allowing for the repopulation of healthy cells.

It is thought that this could open the door for more successful stem cell transplants among patients affected by blood cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

Dr Chengcheng Zhang, assistant professor of physiology and developmental biology at UT Southwestern, said: "We speculate that a common mechanism exists to regulate immune inhibitors in different types of stem cells."

Earlier this year, a team from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center published new insight into genetic differences among kidney donors that could play a role in determining the probable success of transplant operations.