MIXED CHIMERISM-A NEW APPROACH TO ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR IMMUNOSUPPRESSION:

            The Experimental Biology 2001 meeting also had an interesting report from transplant surgeons at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, about inducing mixed chimerism as an approach to eliminating the need for immunosuppression after renal transplantation.

            Benedict cosimis, MD and his colleagues infused 2 patients with some of the bone marrow of the living donors of the kidneys at the time of transplantation. Immunosuppressive therapy was given for about 3 months post operatively and then discontinued. The first patient now has been off therapy for 2-5 years and the second for more than 6 months. Both grafts continue to function normally. According to Dr. Cosimi, this was the first deliberate up front effort to create tolerance 2 clinical trials of the technique are about to begin – one in patients with kidney failure and multiple myeloma, the other in patients with comparatively  uncomplicated kidney transplants