🚀 go-pugleaf

If this works on a wide scale, it is, in my opinion, the biggest news
involving kidney transplantation since they were first done. Imagine
this being a thing of the past: taking immunosuppresants for the rest
of your life (and dealing with the consequential side-effects and
costs).

I posted two articles about it below:

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Doctor claims new stem-cell technique for kidney transplant
Published: Wednesday, 19 July, 2006, 11:40 AM Doha Time

AHMEDABAD: A doctor in Gujarat claims he has pioneered a technique of
kidney transplantation using human embryonic stem cells that not only
overcomes the problem of organ rejection but also cuts treatment cost
dramatically.

Researchers across the world have been grappling with the problem of
rejection of the kidney transplanted in the recipient. To overcome this
situation, patients are given strong immunosuppressants that leave them
vulnerable to infections as they lower immunity.

However, H L Trivedi of the Civil Hospital here says his procedure does
away with the need of immunosuppressants, thus lowering the cost of the
transplantation.

The treatment cost comes down to Rs100,000 ($2,100) from the present
about Rs1mn ($21,600). Expenditure on subsequent maintenance is also
reduced from around Rs15,000 to a mere Rs300.

"Though work is going on in Harvard, Stanford and Pittsburgh, we are
the first in the world to use human embryonic stem cells to generate
new equivalent cells in laboratory," Trivedi, director of the Institute
of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre at the hospital, told IANS.

Human embryonic stem cells have the ability to develop into any other
cell produced in the human body. Thus they have the potential to treat
a range of diseases including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes,
heart disease, stroke, spinal cord injuries and burns.

Kidney failure has emerged as the third most common killer across the
world after cancer and heart diseases.

The technique used by Trivedi and his team of doctors comprising Vineet
Mishra, Aruna Vanikar, Pranjal Modi and Veena Shah has given a new
lease of life to 20 patients not only from India but also Nigeria and
Kenya and the US who are afflicted with kidney failure, he said.

The procedure essentially entails growing in the laboratory human
embryonic stem cells that have been derived from the female who is
donating the kidney. These stem cells are then co-cultured with the
same person's bone marrow cells. This gives them 'direction' to
develop into bone marrow cells.

Trivedi, who returned to India from Canada in 1977 with the dream of
developing an affordable treatment for kidney failure, has treated
about 800 patients since his first transplant in 1998. - IANS

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Stem cell process to aid kidney transplant sans drugsAdd to Clippings
[ 15 Jul, 2006 2126hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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AHMEDABAD: The Kidney Hospital in Ahmedabad on Saturday announced a
major breakthrough by which embryonic stem cell-aided transplant will
enable a kidney patient to accept a donor organ with minimal dose of
drugs.

Doctors claimed that this would significantly reduce the expense of
immuno-supression drugs that currently cost a patient anywhere between
Rs 10,000-15,000 per month and have to be taken lifelong. Cost of drugs
would come down to a meagre Rs 210 per month and need to be taken for
four to six months after the operation.

What's more, this Transplantation Tolerance (TT) project will enable
doctors save more patients who normally would have died within five
years of the transplant due to myraid complications, most of which are
drug-related.

Giving details of this pathbreaking research, director of the Institute
of Kidney Diseases and Research Center (IKDRC) Dr HL Trivedi said CD-34
Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC) are first developed in the laboratory from
the oocytes of the female donor, using the method of 'directed
differentiation.

Ten days before the transplant, these ESC are tranplanted into the
liver wherein it forms the liver cells. Due to the presence of these
cells, the recipient body does not reject the donor kidney as a foreign
body. Currently, a minimal use of drugs is required for three months
which too will be eliminated in future.

"Our biggest achievement here is laboratory production of human
embryonic stem cells which is the first in the world. The cells are
produced using a process similar to cloning but we are not interested
in cloning," said Dr Trivedi.

"Over a billion stem cells are needed for the transplant which are not
readily available from donor sites like the bone marrow and peripheral
blood," said Dr Trivedi who pointed at the possibility of these cells
with specific HLA markers being sold in the markets.

Doctors said that the procedure has been done in 18 patients who have
shown encouraging results. "The last ten patients have done exceedingly
well. We are still in the early stages of research," said Dr Trivedi.
The paper has been accepted by the Journal of International Society of
Transplantation.

One such patient is Ria Patel (9) who was transplanted a kidney a
month-and-half-back. "We are so grateful to this institute for this
discovery. Not only is the cost very affordable, our daughter will not
have to take any drugs for life," Ria's mother, US-based Kavita told
TOI.