A Vancouver Sun headline jumped off my laptop screen and hit me square between the eyes the other day. It read: B.C. researchers discover way to reduce organ rejection following a transplant. . . . It carried this subhead: “Finding has the potential to eliminate need for drugs on which transplant recipients rely to prevent their immune systems from attacking a new organ as a foreign object.” . . . Gordon McIntyre of Postmedia wrote that UBC’s team “found that by using a special polymer to coat blood vessels on the organ to be transplanted, organ rejection in mice was substantially reduced, results confirmed by collaborators at Simon Fraser and Northwestern University in Illinois.” . . . Oh boy, this will be big, big in the transplant community if things continue to pan out. My wife, Dorothy, had a kidney transplant almost eight years ago. She takes anti-rejection drugs twice a day — 12 hours apart — every day. . . . It could be years before the process has gone far enough for clinical trials in humans, but, at least so far, the work involving mice really is looking promising. . . . The complete story is right here.
If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:
Living Kidney Donor Program
St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre
Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182
kidneydonornurse@vch.ca
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Or, for more information, visit right here.
Do good, feel good! Register to be an organ donor and get that warm fuzzy feeling. 1 organ donor can save up to 8 lives. Taketwominutes.ca #TakeTwoMinutes
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