Speaking of transplants

[George K]

Have I mentioned I hated pediatrics?

Yeah...

The smallest kid I put to sleep was during my peds rotation. It was a Saturday morning for a heart procedure (PDA).

Kid weighed 750 grams.

But this...

[Mik]

Jeez

[Mik]

Question - a newborn’s immune system is not, to my understanding anyway, very developed. Is rejection as large a challenge?

[George K]

@Mik said in Speaking of transplants:

Question - a newborn’s immune system is not, to my understanding anyway, very developed. Is rejection as large a challenge?

@jon-nyc knows much more about this stuff than I ever will.

I have no clue. None.

[Axtremus]

What are the odds that you get a transplant organ from an infant so young?

[Jolly]

700 grams we used to let die in the corner.

Wowsers...

[jon-nyc]

@Mik said in Speaking of transplants:

Question - a newborn’s immune system is not, to my understanding anyway, very developed. Is rejection as large a challenge?

Ultimately yes. The T-cells are trained to discriminate between self and other in the Thymus, which doesn’t ‘know’ about the donor organ. So when they do develop they will recognize the donor organ as foreign.

I don’t know at what point the above process matures, so there might be a window where you can get away with little to no immunosupression, but it will eventually close.

[Mik]

I wonder if we will ever be able to genetically retrain the thymus to accept the new material.

[jon-nyc]

That is in fact a promising area of research.

[Mik]

From your lips to God’s ear.