If someone has a successful lung/ kidney transplant, they are expected to fail after 5-10 years even if they take care of their bodies.
Why? Is there anything that can be done to increase this?
In: Biology
I’m going to go a bit beyond 5 years old here, but I think you may appreciate it.
Our organs are made of cells, but it’s important for our cells to communicate with each other but also self identify as being part of a larger whole, because otherwise our bodies immune system will destroy any “foreign” cell. To communicate between cells (and therefore organs) we have tiny little signaling “antennae” called glycoproteins and glycolipids and these have their own unique fingerprint for everyone.
So the surgery could go right, but the organ could still be rejected by the recipients immune system targeting a “foreign” group of cells.
Latest Answers