Genzyme in the UK
Our Treatment Areas
Solid Organ Transplant
What happens when the body ‘rejects’ a donor-organ transplant?
When an organ, such as a heart or a kidney, is transplanted from one person (donor) into another (recipient), the recipients’ body’s natural defence (the ‘immune system’) recognises it as foreign and reacts by trying to reject and destroy it.
How is Genzyme helping patients who have received a donor organ?
One drug produced by Genzyme (an ‘immunosuppressant’ or anti-rejection drug) can often prevent the rejection of a kidney or a heart transplant; it can also be used to treat the rejection of a kidney transplant when corticosteroid treatment hasn’t worked. The treatment works by dampening the body's defence mechanism and helps it to accept the transplanted organ.
Date of preparation: January 2011
