Summary: One third of organ transplants are lost to transplant rejection. Although acute transplant rejection responds relatively well to steroids, chronic rejection (which is mainly mediated by antibodies) has no effective treatment.
Even with the use of immunosuppressants, your body can at times recognize your transplanted organ as a foreign object and attempt to protect you by attacking it. Despite immunosuppression medications, 10-20% of patients will experience at least one episode of rejection.
Chronic rejection is the leading cause of organ transplant failure. The organ slowly loses its function and symptoms start to appear. This type of rejection cannot be effectively treated with medicines.
In heart transplants, the rate of organ rejection and patient mortality are the highest, even though the transplants are monitored by regular biopsies. Specifically, some 40% of heart recipients experience some type of severe rejection within one year of their transplant.
Hyperacute rejection is usually caused by specific antibodies against the graft and occurs within minutes or hours after grafting. Acute rejection occurs days or weeks after transplantation and can be caused by specific lymphocytes in the recipient that recognize HLA antigens in the tissue or organ grafted.
After you have an organ transplant, you will need to take medication (immunosuppressants) for the rest of your life to keep your body from rejecting your new organ. These immunosuppressants, however, make you more likely to develop an infection. Infections can interfere with how you take your immunosuppressants.
While transplanted organs can last the rest of your life, many don't. Some of the reasons may be beyond your control: low-grade inflammation from the transplant could wear on the organ, or a persisting disease or condition could do to the new organ what it did to the previous one.
Summary: One third of organ transplants are lost to transplant rejection. Although acute transplant rejection responds relatively well to steroids, chronic rejection (which is mainly mediated by antibodies) has no effective treatment.
Lungs are the most difficult organ to transplant because they are highly susceptible to infections in the late stages of the donor's life. They can sustain damage during the process of recovering them from the donor or collapse after surgeons begin to ventilate them after transplant.
Kidney. The kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organ.
Organ-specific differences in spontaneous tolerance
Murine skin, hearts, intestines, lungs and hepatocytes are largely rejected when transplanted across MHC barriers (9-13). In contrast, kidneys and livers are commonly accepted across the same MHC barriers (10,14,15). Zhang et al.
Isografts, which are grafts between genetically identical individuals (eg, monozygotic twins), also undergo no rejection. Allografts are grafts between members of the same species that differ genetically. This is the most common form of transplantation.
Adult kidney transplantation is perhaps the greatest success among all the procedures; more than 270,000 initial transplantations have been performed since 1970.
Abstract. Over the years we have noticed on more than one occasion a connection between rejection of a corneal graft and emotional stress. We considered this at first to be a coincidence. However, we have now seen 11 patients in whom an acute rejection occurred just after emotional stress.
Small intestine transplantation is the rarest type of solid organ transplant. Currently, approximately half are pediatric recipients.
In the United States, the most commonly transplanted organs are the kidney, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas and intestines.
While seemingly rare, It's not an unheard-of phenomenon. Some researchers believe it may be possible for donor organs to hold and even pass on the characteristics and experiences of its original owner onto the new recipient, via a process known as cellular memory.
“Where extracorporeal machines or transplantation can support or replace the function of organs such as the heart, lung, liver or kidney, the brain is the only organ that cannot be supported or replaced by medical technology.”
Treating rejection
Most rejection episodes can be reversed if detected and treated early. Treatment for rejection is determined by severity. The treatment may include giving you high doses of intravenous steroids called Solumedrol, changing the dosages of your anti-rejection medications, or adding new medications.
There are three major types of allograft rejection: Hyperacute, acute, and chronic rejection.
Organ and tissue transplant rejection statistics:
With these new medications, rejection rates are as low as 10-15 % of patients and one-year transplanted organ survival has improved to 95%. These days, rejection of tissue is uncommon. Read more organ and tissue donation FAQs here.
Liver transplant can have excellent outcomes. Recipients have been known to live a normal life over 30 years after the operation.