The immune system and transplantation

The immune system has two part innate and adaptive the innate is s the firs to detect when an organism
does not belong to the body and directs the adaptive part to tackle the intruder when a kidney
transplant takes place a specialized subtype white cells that are part of the innate immune system called
dendritic cells carry information from the kidney to the local white nodes called lymph nodes through
blood circulation here in the lymph node cells of the adaptive immune system called t-cells continually
circulate between the blood and lymph nodes and are on constant alert for any sign that the body is
under attack within the t-cells a small subpopulation called regulatory t-cells control how the immune
system will react to intruders dendritic cells which are coming from the transplanted kidney enter the
lymph node and begin to mix with the t-cells and as the come into contact with the t-cells some T cells
become activated the body’s defense mechanism has been triggered the activated T cells called effector
T cells start to multiply an go to the kidney and a tacit information displayed by the dendritic cells have
told the T cells where the intruder can be found they use the vessels of the body to travel their T cells
attack the kidney and attempt to destroy it as quickly as possible the immune system is very powerful
against foreign intruders if the immune system is not controlled the effector T cells attack any unknown
organism they find in the body so if a virus enters the body the T cells would be alerted to its presence
by dendritic cells different T cells from those attacking the kidney will attack and destroy the virus
infected cells

The current protocol to control the immune system during a transplant is the use of immunosuppressive
drugs these drug suppress the immune system paralyzing it from attacking the transplant at first the t-
cells detect the foreign organ and still try to attack it

But the immunosuppressive drugs prevent this from happening before any significant damage has been
done however here lies the problem the whole immune system is paralyzed by the immunosuppressive
drugs so if a virus were to be introduced the immune system cannot react to it and the person becomes
ill to prevent organ rejection the patient must take immunosuppressive drugs for the life of the
transplant with a paralyzed immune system infections are a constant threat the team at King’s Collage
London have developed a way to harness the power of the immune system whilst maintaining the
body’s capacity to resist infectious diseases a large sample of blood is taken from the recipient of an
organ before the transplant has taken place from within this collection of cells a small subpopulation of
t-cells known as the regulatory t-cells are extracted these cells are responsible for regulating the
immune response and decide when and what effector T cells are permitted to attack these cells are
separated selected for specificity and multiplied in their Millions

Outside of the body in a flask in a sterile environment after a few weeks and just after the transplant
takes place these regulatory t-cells are concentrated and injected back into the body

When dendritic cells from the new kidney enter the lymph node the T effectors specific for the
transplant will be inhibited from attacking the kidney by the injected regulatory t-cells but other T cells
specific for the viruses retain their ability to fight infection when a virus enters the body the immune
system is alerted to the danger and destroys them such a technique allows the patient to retain the
transplant for their entire life free from immunosuppressive drugs and therefore free from drug related
diseases such as infections