News: Teen's immune system replaed by that of donor

[dracodraconis]

A 15-year-old liver transplant recipient shocked medical authorities when it was discovered that not only had her blood type changed to that of the donor, but that stem cells from the new liver had infiltrated her bone marrow, changing her immune system so that she no longer required immune-suppressing drugs. Thanks to travis_w for alerting me to this story.

Comments

[randomposting.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's awesome!!!

[joyeuse60.livejournal.com]

Now that is VERY interesting and holds a lot of possibilities if it is not a 'freak/random' occurance.......

Glad it has worked for her.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

Travis pointed me to it after reading one of my previous posts:

http://dracodraconis.livejournal.com/288601.html

Put the two together and it appears some very similar things have gone on, namely that the girl's immune system was completely shut down from a combination of immune-suppressant drugs and a virus known to suppress the immune system. What is so puzzling its how it all happened without medical intervention.

[siderea]

Woah. Good thing they figured it out before giving her any transfusions!

So, what I don't get is why her New Replacement Immune System isn't hunting down and killing all her Original, Factory Installed Organs. Yeah, it's compatable with the new liver, but why does the new firmware update interoperate successfully with the old devices?

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

The question came up in the comments on the article. The best response someone was able to give is that her immune system is now a hybrid of her old one and the new one. Don't ask me how that works; I haven't a clue.

Oh, and someone posted the journal article related to this:

Alexander SI; et al. (Jan 24 2008); "Chimerism and Tolerance in a Recipient of a Deceased-Donor Liver Transplant" N Engl J Med 358:369

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

I wondered the same thing... it seems like truly one in a billion chance.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

I certainly has the doctors baffled.