Transplanting Organs Without Rejection Drugs

I ws watching a bbc horizon program 20 years ago and it mentioned i think an australian doctor who had discovered a way to transplant organs without needing anti rejection drugs and also without rejection and maybe without tissue matching.

however he was blackballed and ostracized by the mainstream doctors.

his method was to bubble oxygen through the donar organ for 2 weeks suspended in some solution and then transplant it.

this killed of the t-cells which are responsible for rejection.

has anyone else seen that program or know who he was and why his method has not been taken up?

No haven't heard of this man or what he proposed. I took care of a transplant patient for a year 2008/09 when he was able to be home and not at the cancer center. I was at the cancer center a lot and did a lot of online research on transplants at the time. It seems if anything came of his idea I would have heard about it.

Originally posted by crazydaisy
No haven't heard of this man or what he proposed. I took care of a transplant patient for a year 2008/09 when he was able to be home and not at the cancer center. I was at the cancer center a lot and did a lot of online research on transplants at the time. It seems if anything came of his idea I would have heard about it.

Thanks for answering.

As I said this was at least 20 to possibly 30 years ago and I did try to do a search of all the BBC Horizon science programs but unfortunately as there about a 1000 of them and only a few have a detailed description I could not find any info.

It was definitely before 1999 and after 1975 and possibly before 1996 and after 1980...just trying to narrow it down.

I don't know if you are aware of the 6 degrees of separation theory which says that you can connect to any person through 6 persons and this has been proved in practice...look in wiki for same...and it occurs to me since you are in touch with relevant people...i.e at the hospital therefore it may be a good idea to start from there to get more information about this...

After all people with transplants are condemned to a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs and the organ can fail even then.

It occurs to me maybe this is why the doctor was blackballed/ostracized as a lifetime revenue stream from anti-rejection drugs would disappear.

Recalling the program I can definately remember the organ in a transparent bag in solution and having oxygen bubbles going through it and also the mention of T-cells.

Any doctors here who can help out?

It would seem like it wouldn't be the T-cells in the organ to be implanted that would cause rejection, but the T-cells in the body of whoever got the organ implanted into them. The immune system is very complex and I would bet there is more to rejection than just T-cells.

Originally posted by deadred
It would seem like it wouldn't be the T-cells in the organ to be implanted that would cause rejection, but the T-cells in the body of whoever got the organ implanted into them. The immune system is very complex and I would bet there is more to rejection than just T-cells.

Surely T-CELLS in donor organ would be different to host T-CELLS?

Hence rejection...hence the above traetment to remove t-cells in donor organ.

No I'm sorry I haven't seen it.

There was however this was out a few years ago.

An australian girl had a liver transplant, she was having other problems and needed marrow as well (unless I'm combining two cases).

When everything got up and running again her blood type changed to that of the donor, meaning she did not need immunosuppressent drugs.

Not the case you were thinking of, but perhaps it will put you on the right track.