Mayo Clinic Research shows why people who receive livers need far less immunosuppressive drugs than those who receive other solid organ transplants
Transplanted livers can bring about physiological changes in the body of the donor to reduce the chances of their own rejection. This startling piece of research from Mayo Clinic published in the journal Kidney International adds yet another facet to one of the most multidimensional organs of the body. No wonder April 19 is observed as World Liver Day.
For decades, transplant experts have observed that liver transplant recipients often need less anti-rejection medication, known as immunosuppressive drugs, than recipients of other solid organs. Similarly, when patients receive a multiple-organ transplant that includes the liver along with any other organ, they need less immunosuppressive medication and have less incidence of rejection even if they are highly sensitive to cellular bad actors, known as antigens, from the donor organs.
The Mayo Clinic research explains why.
“This study shows that the liver transplant itself regulates the host’s immune responses. Compared to the other organs, the liver is immunologically a very active organ, so it is capable of regulating the immune responses against itself, said lead author Timucin Taner, M.D., Ph.D., a transplant surgeon at Mayo Clinic.
When patients undergo a dual kidney-liver transplant, the liver has a protective effect on the kidney, the study found.
The research helps pave the way for ongoing studies on transplanted livers’ unique properties. The hope is that one day researchers will identify how the liver regulates the immune response and mimic that to help patients receiving other types of transplants
Researchers compared the blood samples of organ recipients a year after a kidney transplant, liver transplant or kidney-liver transplant. It found that patients who received a liver and kidney at the same time, or a liver alone, had fewer of the cells that leap into action to defend the body from an invader — known as killer cells or T cells –, compared with people who had a kidney transplant alone. While the T cells of the liver transplant recipients reacted to the donor organ cells weakly, their reaction to other antigens was preserved.
The research helps pave the way for ongoing studies on the transplanted livers’ unique properties. The hope is that one day researchers will identify how the liver regulates the immune response and to mimic that to help patients receiving other types of transplants scale back their need for anti-rejection drugs.
Immunosuppressive drugs are a necessary but difficult aspect of post-transplant care. Without it, the transplant would not be successful because the body would almost immediately reject the donor organ. But immunosuppression itself causes increased risk for infection, cancer and other issues. Future therapies may provide ways to target immune protection to the donated organ, and minimize the risks of immunosuppression for the patients.
Mayo Clinic’s William J. Von Leibig Center for Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine is one of the largest integrated transplant centers in the world, with locations in Rochester, Minnesota; Phoenix; and Jacksonville, Florida.
