Looking for clues to improve the life of a transplanted organ

The long-term outcomes following solid organ transplantation in lung, heart, and kidney have not changed in over 20 years. "Transplantation remains a treatment, not a cure, especially in the pediatric population," says David Briscoe, MD, director of the Transplant Research Program at Boston Children's Hospital. "From a discovery perspective, we are trying to understand the molecules, the events, and how the entire process is coordinated to either promote or inhibit rejection following transplantation so that we can improve the outcomes for our pediatric patients."

With its new initiative, TxRP hopes to translate their discoveries into transformative care as the current monitors of organ stability after transplantation are outdated. To better identify patients at risk for post-transplantation organ failure, they are developing precision diagnostic tools that have a high potential to detect signs of organ failure sooner without the need for biopsy.

Understanding the molecular environment

From a discovery perspective, Briscoe and colleagues at Boston Children's have demonstrated that the transplanted organ itself may provide important clues as to why it may eventually fail even in the best of circumstances.

He and his colleagues are examining the molecular processes within the endothelial cells of a transplanted organ that support regulation of the surrounding immune system environment. They are examining how the graft microenvironment may interface with subsets of T-cells of the immune system to either keep the immune response quiet or to trigger a path towards organ failure over time.