Transplantology: Challenges for Today

AbstractClinical transplantology in Poland had its 50th anniversary this year. With the early and long results comparable to the best achieved in the world leading centers, we face old and completely new challenges for this medical speciality. Main and growing challenge is insufficient number of available organs. With less than 15  donors/mln population/year Poland stay in the lower row of European countries in this measurement of transplant activity. Donation system is not efficient enough and we lose a big number of potential donors still. Living donation (with the exception for the fragments of the liver) remains low desp ite of different initiatives made so far on the national and local levels. Donation after cardiac death is possible from the point of Polish juridical regulations, but since last 3 years had not showed real impact on country donation rates (only three procedures done). Methods of tissue typing rema in slow and cause relatively long times of cold ischemia for kidney programs. Second main challenge is chronic rejection causing loss of organs in the long-term follow-up and no efficient treatment employed. The emerging possibility of tolerance induction despite of plenty of new protocols propositi on in the publications does not show up a clinical everyday practice in work. The same is with xenotransplantation promises; even we were informed recently that till 2030 such genetically modified porcine organs will be available. The next challenge is production ...
Source: Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis - Category: Allergy & Immunology Source Type: research