Transplant News and Research

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Liver services in the United Kingdom need better funding and better staffing

Mortality from liver disease is increasing in the UK. In 2000 liver disease killed more men than Parkinson's disease and more women than cancer of the cervix. Deaths from alcoholic liver disease has doubled in the past 10 years, while liver disease arising from hepatitis C infection is expected to treble by 2020.

13 Oct 2005

New monoclonal antibody that targets immune system B cells shows promise for treating leukemias

In studies with mice, treatment with a new monoclonal antibody that targets immune system B cells has shown considerable promise for treating leukemias, autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection, according to immunologists at Duke University Medical Center.

11 Oct 2005

Rates for new cases of kidney failure have stabilized

After 20 years of annual increases from 5 to 10 percent, rates for new cases of kidney failure have stabilized, according to new research from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). At the same time, dramatic racial disparities persist.

11 Oct 2005

20 percent of people with chronic hepatitis C who receive a liver transplant will develop advanced cirrhosis

A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine may have found a way to identify those at greatest risk, thereby allowing doctors to decide who should receive treatment that could save the transplanted organ. The new findings appear in the October issue of the journal Liver Transplantation.

9 Oct 2005

Kidney paired donation transplantation has graft survival rates equivalent to compatible live donor transplants

A preliminary study suggests that kidney paired donation transplantation, in which incompatible donor/recipient pairs exchange kidneys so that each recipient receives a compatible kidney, had graft survival rates equivalent to compatible live donor transplants, according to a study in the October 5 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

4 Oct 2005

Ischemic brain injury - another promising avenue for stem cell therapy

Adult stem cell therapy quickly and significantly improves recovery of motor function in an animal model for the ischemic brain injury that occurs in about 10 percent of babies with cerebral palsy, researchers report.

4 Oct 2005

Discovery of mechanisms causing portal hypertension

A physician-scientist at UT Southwestern Medical Center and his research team have identified mechanisms causing a potentially deadly type of hypertension that results from liver damage – findings that could lead to its prevention.

3 Oct 2005

Potential biomarker that could be used to predict who might develop hepatic fibrosis

Two new studies on Hepatitis C (HCV) patients who underwent liver transplants examined a potential biomarker that could be used to predict who might develop hepatic fibrosis, a formation of scar-like tissue that can lead to cirrhosis.

3 Oct 2005

HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device

Nine years ago this week, a team of University of Michigan doctors gave a dying heart patient a second chance at life by implanting a high-tech pump in his chest. The high-risk procedure was the first in Michigan performed using a new blood-pumping device called a HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device, which helped the patient live until he received a heart transplant five weeks later.

28 Sep 2005

People who receive a kidney transplant are nearly four times more likely to develop melanoma

...a rare but deadly form of skin cancer, according to a study led by Christopher Hollenbeak, Ph.D., associate professor, Departments of Surgery and Health Evaluation Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

28 Sep 2005

Possible new therapy for lymphoma and leukemia patients

Marty Holmes, a landscaper from Stockton, Calif., had never heard of a regulatory T cell before his doctor suggested that it could be the key to helping him survive his cancer.

28 Sep 2005

From aircraft aerodynamics to improved heart implants

At first glance airplane wings and human hearts have little in common, but, say a team of European researchers, a technology used to measure airflow over wings can now be used to help keep hearts in working order.

28 Sep 2005

Survival of heart attack patients placed on beta-blocker therapy corresponds to specific variations in their genes

Survival of heart attack and unstable angina patients placed on beta-blocker therapy corresponds to specific variations in their genes, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City.

27 Sep 2005

Treatment of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) in children

The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Clinical Research Network has launched its second clinical trial to study NASH, a liver disease that resembles alcoholic liver disease but occurs in patients who drink little or no alcohol. The first trial, launched in January of this year, focuses on adults, while the second trial studies the disease in children.

27 Sep 2005

Transplanted insulin-producing cells survive better when the activation of NKT cells are blocked

Scientists in Japan have found a way to improve on a promising diabetes treatment. In the October 3 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Masaru Taniguchi and colleagues report that transplanted insulin-producing cells survive better when the activation of a specific type of immune cell is blocked.

27 Sep 2005

Transplant News and Research

Liver services in the United Kingdom need better funding and better staffing

New monoclonal antibody that targets immune system B cells shows promise for treating leukemias

Rates for new cases of kidney failure have stabilized

20 percent of people with chronic hepatitis C who receive a liver transplant will develop advanced cirrhosis

Kidney paired donation transplantation has graft survival rates equivalent to compatible live donor transplants

Ischemic brain injury - another promising avenue for stem cell therapy

Discovery of mechanisms causing portal hypertension

Potential biomarker that could be used to predict who might develop hepatic fibrosis

HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device

People who receive a kidney transplant are nearly four times more likely to develop melanoma

Possible new therapy for lymphoma and leukemia patients

From aircraft aerodynamics to improved heart implants

Survival of heart attack patients placed on beta-blocker therapy corresponds to specific variations in their genes

Treatment of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) in children

Transplanted insulin-producing cells survive better when the activation of NKT cells are blocked

Israeli scientists successfully transplant ovaries in sheep and trigger early embryonic development

Researchers discover way to dramatically boost the output of immune system cells from the thymus

People who receive a kidney transplant are nearly four times more likely to develop melanoma

Adult human neural stem cells used to successfully regenerate spinal cord tissue

Acute-leukemia sign may signal need for different therapy

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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