The past, present and future of transplantation

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of Sweden's first kidney transplant. It is also the fortieth anniversary of the country's first pancreas transplant and the thirtieth anniversary of the country's first liver transplant and first heart transplant.  To commemorate this, Karolinska Institutet, together with the Swedish Transplantation Society, is holding two symposia. H.R.H. Prince Daniel, who is himself the recipient of a kidney, will be taking part.

Journalists are welcome to these symposia

Time and place:  Thursday 23 October 2014, 13:00–16:30, Aula Medica, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, open to the public (in Swedish)
Friday 24 October 2014, 8.30–13:00, Citykonferensen Ingenjörshuset, Stockholm, for researchers and healthcare personnel (in English)

At the anniversary symposium on Thursday, travel back in time to the 1960s with Göran Lundgren, associate professor and former transplant surgeon, to hear what happened when the first kidney transplant in Sweden took place. We also meet Rafael Perez Valenciano, who has lived with a transplanted kidney for over 40 years, and Marta Ehlin, who was given several new organs at the same time.

"From 1964 until the present day, our understanding of how well organ transplantation works as a treatment has really grown. As time has passed, the methods used have become much safer and have been so successful that kidney, live, pancreas, heart and lung transplants are now routine procedures. Intestinal transplants are still rare", says Bo-Göran Ericzon, Professor of Transplantation Surgery at Karolinska Institutet and the main organiser of the symposia.

Just a few weeks ago, came the news about the unique womb transplants that had taken place in Sweden and about how the first baby had now been born from one of these transplanted wombs.

Immunosuppressive treatment is still required following the majority of transplants. This treatment inhibits the immune system so that it does not reject the new organ. Many patients experience side effects from this treatment; consequently, one of the big challenges for the future is to either improve the immunosuppressive treatment or reduce the need for it. David Berglund, Uppsala University, is discussing the various ways to affect the patient's own while blood cells to make them protect the new organ.

Artificial organs will also be discussed on the Thursday. One of the expectations here is that it will be possible to connect a mechanical organ to human functions so that, for example, nerves can control the function of an organ.

"Transplantation has been regarded as something unnatural and alien, but is it actually the most natural thing as it fixes a disrupted function in the same way as nature would have solved the problem itself. Replacing the body's organs with artificial organs has shown itself to be difficult. For example, the natural heart not only functions as a pump, but also has inbuilt repair mechanisms and the role of checking how blood pressure needs to be adjusted in the body", says Bo-Göran Ericzon.

We currently use donated organs from other people for transplants, but by using more materials from the patient's own body, the risk of rejection is reduced. In recent years, six people in Sweden have received kidney cell transplants. This involves cells being taken from the patient's own kidney before it has lost all its function. The cells are grown outside the body and then returned to the patient. This is one way to extend the length of time the patient can live with their own kidney. On day two, Torbjörn Lundgren, Karolinska Institutet, will talk more about how this is done.

Stephen Strom has been recruited to Karolinska Institutet from the USA in order to conduct research on the use of liver cells and what are known as placental stem cells in transplantation. The latter cells, which exist during the foetal stage, can form many other types of cell, for example liver cells or kidney cells. Researchers now have high hopes that it will be possible to use placental stem cells to build new organs because they also have unique repair processes. Listen to Stephen Strom talk on the Friday.

To find the programme and for further information, please visit: http://www.transplantationsjubileum.se/ 

If you have any questions, please contact:

Professor Bo-Göran Ericzon
+46 70-609 67 50
Bo-Goran.Ericzon@ki.se

Contact the Press Office: ki.se/pressroom

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities. It accounts for over 40 per cent of the medical academic research conducted in Sweden and offers the country’s broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

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