Kidney and Blood Stem Cell Transplantation That Eliminates Requirement for Immunosuppressive Drugs

Summary

The Stanford Medical Center Program in Multi-Organ Transplantation and the Division of Bone Marrow Transplantation are enrolling patients into a research study to determine if blood stem cells injected after kidney transplantation, in combination with lymphoid irradiation ,will change the immune system such that immunosuppressive drugs can be completely withdrawn. Patients must have a healthy, completely human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched brother or sister as the organ and stem cell donor. One to two months before kidney transplant surgery, blood stem cells will be removed from the donor and the cells will be frozen. After transplant surgery, the recipient will receive radiation and anti-T cell antibody treatments for two weeks to prepare for injection of the stem cells. The stem cells will be injected at the end of the two-week treatment. If the stem cells persist in the recipient, immunosuppressive drugs will be gradually reduced until they are withdrawn completely at least six months after transplantation. Patients will be followed in the Stanford clinics for transplant patients. Patients who live outside of the San Francisco Bay Area must remain near Stanford for six weeks after transplant surgery.

Timeline

Start

2004-07

Primary completion

2026-07

Completion

2026-07

Publications

• Background Strober S, Benike C, Krishnaswamy S, Engleman EG, Grumet FC. Clinical transplantation tolerance twelve years after prospective withdrawal of immunosuppressive drugs: studies of chimerism and anti-donor reactivity. Transplantation. 2000 Apr 27;69(8):1549-54. doi: 10.1097/00007890-200004270-00005.
• Background Millan MT, Shizuru JA, Hoffmann P, Dejbakhsh-Jones S, Scandling JD, Grumet FC, Tan JC, Salvatierra O, Hoppe RT, Strober S. Mixed chimerism and immunosuppressive drug withdrawal after HLA-mismatched kidney and hematopoietic progenitor transplantation. Transplantation. 2002 May 15;73(9):1386-91. doi: 10.1097/00007890-200205150-00005.
• Results Scandling JD, Busque S, Shizuru JA, Engleman EG, Strober S. Induced immune tolerance for kidney transplantation. N Engl J Med. 2011 Oct 6;365(14):1359-60. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1107841. No abstract available.
• Results Scandling JD, Busque S, Dejbakhsh-Jones S, Benike C, Sarwal M, Millan MT, Shizuru JA, Lowsky R, Engleman EG, Strober S. Tolerance and withdrawal of immunosuppressive drugs in patients given kidney and hematopoietic cell transplants. Am J Transplant. 2012 May;12(5):1133-45. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-6143.2012.03992.x. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
• Jensen KP, Hongo DA, Ji X, Zheng P, Pawar R, Wu TH, Busque S, Scandling JD, Shizuru JA, Lowsky R, Shori A, Dutt S, Waters J, Saraswathula A, Baker J, Tamaresis JS, Lavori P, Negrin R, Maecker H, Engleman EG, Meyer E, Strober S. Development of immunosuppressive myeloid cells to induce tolerance in solid organ and hematopoietic cell transplant recipients. Blood Adv. 2021 Sep 14;5(17):3290-3302. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2020003669.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.