organ donor Archives - Amazing Health Advances

5 Facts About Being a Kidney Donor

The AHA! Team — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 05:42:57 +0000

Duke Health – More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for a kidney donation, according to government statistics. Being a living kidney donor is truly a gift of a lifetime, but many people don’t realize they can give this gift safely. Duke performs about 200 kidney transplants annually, with one third being from living donors. Gayle Vranic, MD, a kidney transplant specialist at Duke University Hospital, dispels five common misconceptions that potential kidney donors may have. Myth: I have to be related to someone to donate a kidney to them. Fact: New anti-rejection medications make it possible to donate to distant relatives and even friends. Duke’s transplant team takes prospective donors through a careful physical and psychological screening process — much of which can be done remotely for donors who live far away — to make sure the donor can undergo the surgery with no ill effects, physical or otherwise. Myth: The surgery is difficult and expensive, and I’ll need to take a lot of time off. Fact: Today’s kidney donation surgery usually takes only a few hours and requires only a few small incisions. Most people — 95% — are discharged the next day. “It usually takes two to three weeks to get back to almost all of your normal activities, including work, and about six to eight weeks to feel completely normal,” Dr. Vranic said. All hospital expenses are paid for by the recipient’s medical coverage — only costs of travel, time off work, and a few post-surgery medications aren’t covered. There are several organizations that may help cover those costs for donors who cannot. Myth: After the surgery, my life will be different, and it might limit what I can do. Fact: Careful screening of donors means that only people who are in very good health will be selected — and for those people, the risk of future complications is very low. Women of childbearing age can still have healthy pregnancies after donating, and the risk for future kidney disease is not affected by the donation of a single kidney. “Your health care needs after the surgery are essentially the same as before the surgery,” said Dr. Vranic. Kidney donors will need regular blood and urine tests to monitor kidney function, and they need to watch their blood pressure and body weight; so, they must visit their primary care doctor every year but, as Dr. Vranic pointed out, that’s something everyone should do anyway. Myth: If my intended recipient and I aren’t a match, the process ends there. Fact: A variety of options makes it possible for you and your recipient to match or to find another compatible pair elsewhere. One option is for the recipient and the donor to receive medical treatments before and after transplant that allow the recipient to receive a kidney from someone with a different blood type. Another option may be for you and your recipient to enter Duke’s paired exchange program. Your recipient receives a kidney from someone else’s donor, and another recipient receives your kidney. Finally, if for some reason you and your donor cannot be a pair, we can help empower your donor to be an advocate and help you in your search for another living donor. Myth: Duke doesn’t accept “Good Samaritan” kidney donations. Fact: Duke accepts altruistic (non-directed) donors — those who are willing to donate a kidney to a recipient in need, even if that person is a stranger. More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for a kidney donation, according to government statistics. To learn more about organ donation, visit unos.org or the National Kidney Foundation. Or learn more about the process by filling out this questionnaire. To read the original article click here.

The post 5 Facts About Being a Kidney Donor appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Artificial Veins Could Boost Success of Organ Transplants

The AHA! Team — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 08:24:03 +0000

Zachy Hennessey via Israel21c – Bonus Biogroup has developed microscopic biodegradable tubes that run through an engineered transplant organ, supplying a steady flow of blood. Globally, there is a persistent shortage of viable organs for transplantation. This unmet need has spurred the development of “engineered organs” — cultivated tissue that mimics the structure and function of livers, hearts, lungs and other vital viscera. While these in-vitro inside parts can be used to fill the gap in organ supply, it’s really hard to supply blood throughout the newly transplanted tissue. To solve this problem, Bonus Biogroup, an Israeli biotechnology company specializing in next-generation tissue regeneration therapies, has developed a method of producing a sophisticated network of artificial blood vessels that will enable reliable blood flow to transplanted artificial organs, drastically increasing their viability. Tomer Bronshtein, VP of Business Development at Bonus Biogroup, elaborates on the issue it aims to resolve. “One of the biggest challenges in implementing engineered tissue is making sure that it is vascularized. If it isn’t, only the periphery of the tissue which is exposed to blood vessels will be nourished,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “Now, the body knows how to build blood vessels into new tissue, but this process takes time. After two or three days, if the new tissue is deprived of nutrients, these cells will die,” he says. “Even if the immune matching is superb — even if you could take it from your twin brother — if it’s not vascularized, it will not work.” You’re so vein Enter the Haifa-based company’s latest product: a network of microscopic biodegradable tubes that run throughout an engineered organ, acting as a “scaffold” that holds the cultivated cells together while supplying a steady flow of blood throughout the transplanted tissue. Thanks to its biodegradable qualities, the scaffold ensures the newly embedded organ gets a steady flow of blood until the body replaces the artificial veins with the real deal, at which point it decays and makes its way out of the system. The blood vessels are created through a process called “electrospinning,” which Bronshtein compares to the process of making cotton candy. “There you have sugar that is making fibers because of heat. In electrospinning, you have biomaterials that are making fibers as a result of an electric current,” he says. The cultivated vessels can be spun to customizable diameters ranging from single microns to tens of microns. The artificial bundle of veins hooks up to the body’s blood supply via a port bundled at one end, spreads throughout the transplanted organ, and comes together at the other end into another port hooked up to the body. Picture an apartment building that has one water main which then splits into pipes that run through every floor of the building, and then they all meet back up again to head into the sewer system. Bonus Biogroup made that plumbing system, but for in-vitro organs. Enough to grow around As of 2022, the engineered tissues market was valued at approximately $12 billion and is projected to grow at an annual rate of about 11%, reaching $33 billion by 2032. Bonus Biogroup is banking on its innovation helping this market reach even greater potential. The company’s bone grafting product, BonoFill, stands to serve around 6.2 million patients in the US alone. By utilizing accessible and cost-effective methods, the company can streamline production processes and make its technology more widely accessible, while maintaining its competitive edge through patent protection. The publicly-traded company, which employs 53 people, has obtained patent approvals in 17 European countries and England, safeguarding Bonus Therapeutics, its wholly-owned subsidiary, until 2036. To date, the company has raised $60 million, and it stands to serve around 6.2 million patients in the US alone with its bone grafting product, BonoFill. With that in mind, Bonus intends to grant access to its technology to anyone who wants to use it — so long as they go through the proper legal channels. “This technology is something that we have no intention to keep to ourselves. Once we have established the global patent coverage on this technology, we are able to extend its use to other potential users,” says Bronshtein. While the company is using its vascular network primarily for its prior products — engineered bone and soft tissue for transplantation — it could be used for other needs as well. “Our goal is to make it the first available choice to patients in any indication,” notes CEO Shai Meretzki. “We know that there are groups in the world trying to do what we’ve done and failing to do it. And we are willing to allow them to use the technology developed by us within their products.” “It’s like how only one company developed the Intel chip, but you can find that chip in many devices. It’s the same concept here. You can put our blood network inside a liver or kidney or pancreas or any other tissue. Because the market is so wide, we are willing to share it,” Meretzki says. “When we founded Bonus, we were looking for a real change. Our goal from scratch was to create blockbuster products that will treat millions in each indication. And I believe that’s exactly what we are doing.” To read the original article click here.

The post Artificial Veins Could Boost Success of Organ Transplants appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Antibody Shows Promise for Preventing Organ Rejection After Transplantation

The AHA! Team — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 04:30:14 +0000

Duke Health – DURHAM, N.C. – A man-made antibody successfully prevented organ rejection when tested in primates that had undergone a kidney transplant, Duke Health researchers report. The finding clears the way for the new monoclonal antibody to move forward in human clinical trials. Results of the study appear online Aug. 30 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “Current medications to prevent organ rejection are good overall, but they have a lot of side effects,” said lead author Imran J. Anwar, M.D., a surgical research fellow in Duke’s Department of Surgery. “These therapies suppress the immune system, putting patients at risk of infections and organ damage, and many cause non-immune complications such as diabetes and high blood pressure. “The push over the last decades has been to develop new, less toxic drugs,” Anwar said. “We are hopeful this antibody moves us closer to that goal.” Anwar and colleagues, including co-senior author Allan Kirk, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Surgery, focused on a monoclonal antibody identified as AT-1501. It was engineered to minimize the risk of blood clots, which had become problematic for an earlier version of this therapy. In studies using primates that had undergone kidney transplantation, AT-1501 prevented rejection without the need for additional immunosuppressive drugs or promoting blood clots, confirming its immunosuppressive potential. In animals that had undergone islet transplantation, AT-1501 alone did not lead to uniform rejection control, but it was effective in combination with existing immunosuppressive agents. The combination therapies in islet transplantation led to uniform islet graft survival without weight loss or infections that can typically arise. The islet transplants were performed by Norma Kenyon, Ph.D., co-senior author and professor at the University of Miami. “These data support AT-1501 as a safe and effective agent to promote both islet and kidney transplant survival and function and allow us to advance into clinical trials right away,” Kirk said. “This less toxic approach has been pursued for over 20 years, and I think we are finally at a turning point. This could be a great advance for people in need of organ transplants.” In addition to Kirk and Anwar, study authors include Dora M. Berman, Isabel DeLaura, Qimeng Gao, Melissa A. Willman, Allison Miller, Alan Gill, Cindy Gill, Steve Perrin, Camillo Ricordi, Philip Ruiz, Mingqing Song, Joseph M Ladowski, and Norma S. Kenyon. The study received funding support from the National Institutes of Health (U19-AI051731), the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, and Anelixis Therapeutics, now Eledon Pharmaceuticals, which is developing AT-1501 for kidney and islet cell transplant. To read the original article click here.

The post Antibody Shows Promise for Preventing Organ Rejection After Transplantation appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

World’s First Partial Heart Transplant Proves Successful in First Year

The AHA! Team — Wed, 29 May 2024 08:13:15 +0000

Journal of the American Medical Assocation via Duke Health – Novel procedure demonstrated valve growth & functionality in newly published study results The world’s first partial heart transplant has achieved what researchers have spent more than a year hoping for DURHAM, N.C. – The world’s first partial heart transplant has achieved what researchers have spent more than a year hoping for — functioning valves and arteries that grow along with the young patient, as hypothesized by the pioneering team behind the procedure at Duke Health. The procedure was performed in the spring of 2022, in an infant who needed heart valve replacement. The previous standard of care — using valves that were non-living — would not grow along with the child, requiring frequent replacement, entailing surgical procedures that carry a 50% mortality rate. A study led by Duke Health physicians, appearing online Jan. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the new manner of valve procurement used during the partial heart transplant led to two well-functioning valves and arteries that are growing in concert with the child as if they were native vessels. “This publication is proof that this technology works, this idea works, and can be used to help other children,” said Joseph W. Turek, M.D., Ph.D., first author of the study and Duke’s chief of pediatric cardiac surgery, who led the landmark procedure. The study also found the procedure requires about a quarter of the amount of immunosuppressant medication than a full heart transplant, potentially saving patients from detrimental side effects that might compound over decades. Turek said the innovation has paved the way for a domino heart transplant, where one heart is able to save two lives. During a domino heart transplant, a patient who has healthy valves but is in need of stronger heart muscle receives a full heart transplant; their healthy valves are then donated to another patient in need, creating a domino effect. “You could potentially double the number of hearts that are used for the benefit of children with heart disease,” Turek said. “Of all the hearts that are donated, roughly half meet the criteria to go on to be used for full transplant, but we believe there’s an equal number of hearts that could be used for valves.” You could potentially double the number of hearts that are used for the benefit of children with heart disease “If you introduce the donated hearts that weren’t being put to use into the supply chain and add the valves from domino heart transplants, that can create a substantial change,” Turek said. The partial heart transplant procedure has been performed 13 times at four centers around the world, including nine at Duke, several of which have been domino heart transplants. Turek said bringing this innovation to a clinical trial would be the next step to achieving the volume in procedures that would change the availability of hearts by a large amount. “This innovation adds a lot to the whole donation community,” Turek said, “because it’s treating more kids, while also honoring the wishes of selfless donor parents who’ve given the ultimate gift. It allows them to offer hope to another child in the process.” Preclinical data was supported by the Brett Boyer Foundation. In addition to Turek, study authors include Lillian Kang, Douglas Overbey, Michael P. Carboni, and Taufiek K. Rajab. To read the original article click here.

The post World’s First Partial Heart Transplant Proves Successful in First Year appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Doctors Bring Dead Donor Heart Back to Life in US First

AHA Publisher — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 08:00:28 +0000

Sally Robertson, B.Sc. via News Medical-Net – A heart transplant team at Duke University, North Carolina, has become the first in the US to reanimate the heart of a deceased donor and transplant it into a recipient. The process, known of as Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD), involves the use of an artificial circulatory mechanism that pumps warm, oxygenated blood through the heart while it is outside of the body. Once the organ is revived, it can be transplanted into a patient who is in need of a healthy heart. In this case, the recipient was a military veteran who received the donated organ through the Mission act. The DCD transplant, which was performed on Sunday 1st December, was reportedly a success, and the patient is recovering well. A Crucial Step in Reducing the Donor Organ Shortage Experts are calling this a major and crucial step towards addressing the current shortage of donor organs. Duke is one of five medical centers in the US that have been approved to carry out DCD heart transplantation as part of a new clinical trial to test the artificial circulatory device. The cutting-edge practice uses a technique called warm perfusion to circulate blood, oxygen, and electrolytes through the disembodied heart, prompting it to beat again. Previously, a heart would be harvested from a living donor who had been declared medically brain-dead. However, the heart tissue generally starts to deteriorate before a person has been declared dead due to the low levels of oxygen generated by the slowing heart. By the time a patient is confirmed dead, the heart is already too damaged to use for transplantation. The DCD Procedure Was First Used in 2015 The DCD method was first used in a 2015 clinical trial conducted at the Royal Papworth Hospital in the UK. According to doctor Jacob Niall Schroder, who performed the procedure at Duke University, a further 75 DCD transplants have been performed at the Royal Papworth since the trial four years ago. “If Royal Papworth’s experience has shown us anything, this will decrease waitlist time, deaths on the waitlist, with excellent survival results. This is the first time in the US, which is a huge deal because transplant need and volume is so high.” (Jacob Niall Schroder, Surgical director of Duke’s Heart Transplant Program in the Department of Surgery) “This is the donor pool actively expanding” Schroder says, “this is the donor pool actively expanding” and that DCD has the potential to broaden the donor pool by as much as 30%. “Increasing the number of donated hearts would decrease the wait time and the number of deaths that occur while people are waiting. It’s important to conduct this clinical trial to determine whether those outcomes are realized,” he adds. “We are grateful for the courage and generosity of both the donors and recipients.” To read the original article click here.

The post Doctors Bring Dead Donor Heart Back to Life in US First appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.