Identifying Organ Transplant Rejection Mechanisms and Therapies

Although immune system suppression therapies have improved the acceptance period of transplanted organs to some degree, still many organs are rejected over longer periods. To minimize the rejection rate, one strategy in a recent paper in The Journal of Experimental Medicine studied genetic markers from different kinds of transplants, looking for genes that were expressed differently in rejected organs than in their more stable counterparts. If such genetic markers could be found, existing drugs known to suppress the activities of those genes might be tested to see if they could help improve organ rejection rates.