CONICET researchers Rodrigo Papa Gobbi and Pablo Stringa, at the Institute of Immunological and Pathophysiological Studies (CONICET-UNLP), contributed to a new transplant technique developed with a medical team at La Paz Hospital in Madrid. Along with the organ, the recipient receives bone marrow precursor cells from the donor, which help the two immune systems coexist.
In 2020 the technique was used on two patients who had rejected previous transplants: a 49-year-old woman who received a kidney and a 15-year-old girl who received a multivisceral transplant. Almost six years later, both have working organs, no signs of rejection, minimal immunosuppression and normal lives.
The results were published in Communications Medicine. A phase 1 clinical trial has already begun, with two more patients treated without adverse effects, and the aim is to bring the technique to other centres in Spain and Argentina.
