The Human Organ Transplant Journey.

The idea of transplanting organs is not new. It can be found in Myths of the ancient Indians and Greeks and was referred to by even older civilization. But until the middle of the twentieth century, it remained largely impossible, a piece of myth or fantasy, or science fiction.                  

I was realised that after people die, their tissues such as skin and corneas, could be used to repair defects in patients. It was further realised that even vital organs such as the heart, kidneys and liver could be retrieved from people who had died due to brain damage.              

When surgeons were finally able to carry out transplants in the 20th century, they came upon a huge stumbling block. while they could transplant one human organ into the other, it still did not work. why? Because of the human body's fantastic immune system!

The immune system of the human body protects the body against disease or other potentially damaging foreign bodies. When functioning properly the immune system identifies and attacks a variety of threats, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, without damaging the body own healthy tissue.

so if someone receives an organ transplant, their immune system sees the organ as an invader and attacks it until the organ is destroyed and rejected by the body.
The dilemma for the doctors was-How could they trick the body of the receiver into not rejecting the new, healthy organ that it needed?

Several methods were tried but none worked. It was discovered that certain drugs could suppress certain parts of the immune system by lowering the body's normal immune response to the invasion of foreign invaders. so while that made them susceptible to certain infections it enabled a transplanted organ to work in their bodies!

In addition, in 1960, Dr Peter Medawar introduced a way of typing tissue, just as blood typing had been discovered in 1900. By 1962, tissue typing and immune suppression with drugs were used for the first time in a human kidney transplant.

The discovery and introduction of cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant drug in the 1980s brought the biggest breakthrough in preventing rejection and opened a new era in transplant surgery. In 1986 alone nearly 9,000 kidney transplants were performed in the united states, with a greater than 85% survival rate for the first year.

If you want to get more idea, visit the website undersigned.

www.organindia.org