An eight-year-old has been spared from taking life-long drugs to stop her body rejecting her kidney transplant thanks to a UK-first treatment.
Aditi Shankar’s immune system was “reprogrammed” after a stem cell transplant and as a result her body accepted a donor kidney as its own, clinicians have told the PA news agency.
Because the bone marrow transplant and kidney came from the same donor – Aditi’s mother – the new kidney is working without the need for drugs that stop the body from rejecting a donated organ.
While providing a vital function after transplant surgery, immunosuppressants work by dampening down the body’s immune system, meaning anyone taking them is at higher risk of an infection, among other complications.
They usually need to be taken for life but Aditi stopped taking the drugs a month after her surgery thanks to the pioneering work by doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) in London.
Her mother Divya told PA she was “happy and proud” to donate both bone marrow and one of her kidneys to her daughter.
The 38-year-old shopkeeper said: “I was so happy to give her blood cells and a kidney. I just feel so proud.”
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