Lab 056: The Right Match: Organ Transplants

About This Lab

Let’s be honest, there’s a little Meredith Grey in all of us, and this week, we get to think like real surgeons because we’re going beyond our TV dramas and into the the lab to talk about organ transplants! What’s it take to match organs with folks, how does the body react, and what new technologies are out there?

• How does a transplant work?

  • Histocompatibility: tissue matching! (so less about matching blood types but matching tissue makeups)

  • Our Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) system helps make the tissue

• Reasons an organ transplant may present difficulties?

  • The number of antibodies we have can affect how well our body takes to the new organ

    • also volume and antibody type

  • Our immune system is built to throw hands and keep out foreign things

• What could aggravate the immune system during this process?

  • Antibody exposure from things like:

    • brawls

    • having a kid

    • previous transplant or transfusion

• Last Step in Histocompatibility = Cross-match

  • if the physical implant doesn’t match, organ turns black because of immunosuppression

  • best case- recipients are highly compatible

• New Tech

  • histocompatibility testing can be done in a few hrs

  • PCR Techniques give us more info on tissue

  • xenotransplantation! (let’s talk pig hearts)

Guest Expert

Our guest for this week’s lab is David Lowe, Senior Director of Research and Development at One Lambda, Inc. He helps us bust myths and fears around transplants and teaches us about the science of organ transplantation from how donors and recipients are matched to new strides in transplantation technology.

Transcript

You can read the entire episode right here. Check it out!