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Click here for the Transplant Chronicles Editorial Board. For past issues of Transplant Chronicles please visit the archive. Skip to main content. Transplant Chronicles Summer Bacteria and viruses are examples of foreign organisms that the immune system destroys. To prevent the immune system from damaging the transplanted kidney, you will take immunosuppressive anti-rejection drugs.
It is very important to take your medications every day, exactly as prescribed. A sudden decline in kidney transplant function due to injury caused by the immune system can occur in spite of taking these medications.
The only way to diagnose acute rejection is to perform a renal biopsy. Under local anesthesia, a small fragment of your kidney is removed with a needle and examined under a microscope. A pathologist will determine whether rejection is present. Transplant rejection is a process in which a transplant recipient's immune system attacks the transplanted organ or tissue.
Your body's immune system usually protects you from substances that may be harmful, such as germs, poisons, and sometimes, cancer cells. These harmful substances have proteins called antigens coating their surfaces. As soon as these antigens enter the body, the immune system recognizes that they are not from that person's body and that they are "foreign," and attacks them.
When a person receives an organ from someone else during transplant surgery, that person's immune system may recognize that it is foreign. This is because the person's immune system detects that the antigens on the cells of the organ are different or not "matched. To help prevent this reaction, doctors type, or match both the organ donor and the person who is receiving the organ. The more similar the antigens are between the donor and recipient, the less likely that the organ will be rejected.
Tissue typing ensures that the organ or tissue is as similar as possible to the tissues of the recipient. The match is usually not perfect. No two people, except identical twins, have identical tissue antigens. Doctors use medicines to suppress the recipient's immune system.
The goal is to prevent the immune system from attacking the newly transplanted organ when the organ is not closely matched. If these medicines are not used, the body will almost always launch an immune response and destroy the foreign tissue. There are some exceptions, though. Cornea transplants are rarely rejected because the cornea has no blood supply. Also, transplants from one identical twin to another are almost never rejected. The recipient's body starts to reject the new organ or limb.
Acute rejection can occur within a few months to a year from transplantation. Chronic rejection can happen over a few years. Basically, your immune system is to blame: It is responsible for fighting off foreign invaders. A big part part of how it does its job is through the Major histocompatibility complex MHC. The MHC's differentiates between your body's cells and cells that shouldn't be there. The MHC is made up of mostly glycoproteins on the walls of your cells. They act as tags that essentially say, "This is me".
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