DEVELOPMENT OF CLINICALLY APPLICABLE STRATEGIES TO INDUCE AND MONITOR LONG TERM ACCEPTANCE OF LIVER ALLOGRAFTS [ 2001 - 2003 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: Dr Alex Bishop (Principal investigator) ,  A/Pr Julie Jonsson ,  Prof Elizabeth Powell ,  Prof Geoffrey Mccaughan

Brief description Liver transplantation is the only therapy for end-stage liver disease and thousands of Australian lives have been saved with this treatment. The major complication of liver transplantation is rejection which leads to loss of about half of the transplanted livers by ten years. Liver transplants in many animal models are not rejected and function normally for the life of the animal. Using one such animal model we have shown that white cells from the donor are responsible for the absence of rejection. Of interest, these cells appear to stimulate a rapid and extreme immune response, which closely resembles rejection. The main difference is that it is quicker and more marked than rejection and then exhausts itself. This observation is unexpected and suggests possibilities for new treatments. Furthermore it questions the effectiveness of our present treatment for rejection of transplanted livers. We have already shown that some kinds of drugs given to prevent rejection in humans actually have the opposite effect in the animal model and prevent long-term acceptance of liver transplants. The aim of this work is to develop in our animal model a better way of treating human liver transplant patients. This will incorporate injection of donor white cells and treatment with drugs which promote the beneficial effects of these cells. We will also develop ways of testing the blood or the liver of the human liver transplant patients early after transplantation to find out whether the patient is accepting the liver or not. This means that we should be able to try this new treatment method in liver transplant patients once it has been optimised in the animal model.

Funding Amount $AUD 287,036.72

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant