Organ Transplantation

Think of a couple reasons why you might need an organ or tissue transplant?

The click to compare your reasons…

You may need an organ transplant if one of your own organs has failed. This can happen because of illness or injury.

Kidney transplanted from the body on the left to the body on the right

DefinitionWhen you have an organ transplant, doctors remove an organ from another person and place it in your body for the purpose of replacing a damaged or absent organ.

For example, doctors may perform an operation that places a healthy kidney in your body. The transplanted kidney takes over the work of the kidney that stopped working.

Before you click, make a list of some common organs that are transplanted.

Then click to compare your answer.

Most commonly transplanted organs and tissues are:heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and skinbones, tendons, cornea, heart valves, veins

Worldwide, which organ do you think is most commonly transplanted?

The Kidney

Types of TransplantsAutograftA transplant of tissue to the same person

For example:- skin grafts- treatment of tissue before returning it- stored tissue (e.g. blood, stem cells)

Types of TransplantsAllograftA transplant between two genetically non-identical members of the same species- most transplants are allograftsComplications: requires immunosuppressants to prevent an immune response – but these drugs makes the body vulnerable to pathogens

Types of TransplantsIsograftA sub-category of allografts – involves a transplant from a donor to a genetically identical recipient (such as an identical twin)- does not trigger an immune response

Types of TransplantsXenograft & XenotransplantationA transplant from one species to another

For example:Porcine (pig) heart valve transplants (common and successful)

Complications: often dangerous because of the increased risk of non-compatibility, rejection, and disease carried in the tissue

What do you think is a major challenge for a successful transplant?

Click to compare your answer.Transplant RejectionThis is when the recipient's body turns against the new organ, causing it to fail. People who have transplants must take drugs to suppress the immune system for the rest of their lives to help keep their bodies from rejecting the new organ.

Solution:Serotyping to determine the best donor-recipient match and the use of immunosuppressant drugs (but remember that they compromise the entire immune system)

Types of Donors1. DeceasedThese are donors who have been declared brain-dead and have indicated that they wish to donate their organs

-organs are kept viable (alive) by ventilators or other mechanical mechanisms

Types of Donors2. Living DonorsA living donor donates a renewable tissue, cell, or fluide.g. blood, skin

- donates an organ or part of an organ in which the remaining organ can regenerate or take on the workload of the rest of the organe.g. primarily single kidney donation, partial donation of liver

Bioethical IssuesTransplant TourismWealthy individuals go to poorer nations and buy organs for transplantation

Organ HarvestingOrgans are taken from living or deceased individuals without their consent and sold for transplantation

The World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked the Philippines as one of the top five countries in the world for human organ trafficking

Organ donors, recruited from poor Filipino communities, neighboring provinces, and central Philippines are paid from $2,000 to $3,000 per kidney, but underground syndicates and illicit transplant surgeons make a killing on foreign patients who spend anywhere between $70,000 to $115,000 for a kidney transplant. Liver transplants go as high as $130,000!!!

Baseco, Philippines: “One Kidney Island”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499486/Inside-transplant-tourist-trade-The- desperate-men-One-Kidney-Island.html

Line of despair – Donors from the slums of Baseco with scars from their operations