Aug. 24 - Liver grafts from hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors have 1-year patient and graft survival comparable with donation after brain death (DBD) liver grafts from donors with or without HCV infection, according to findings from a recent study.

Aug. 23 - Black people in the United States are almost four times more likely to develop kidney failure and experience heart failure compared to white Americans, but they are much less likely to receive lifesaving transplants. In 2019, Northwestern Medicine created a novel and practical solution to this complex issue by redesigning the transplant access process for Black patients challenged by structural and institutional barriers.

Aug. 23 - Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University report that they were able to successfully put tadpoles of Xenopus laevis frogs into a hibernation-like torpor state using donepezil (DNP), a drug approved by the FDA to treat Alzheimer's. The team had previously used another drug, SNC80, to achieve similar results in tadpoles and enhance the survival of whole mammalian hearts for transplants, but SNC80 is not approved for clinical use in humans because it can cause seizures.

Aug. 22 - Research from Radboud university medical center reveals that T cells from the adaptive immune system can manipulate the memory of innate immune cells. Previously, it was believed that the memory of innate immune cells operated independently. This surprising connection opens up new possibilities for the treatment of various diseases. A mouse model shows that no immunosuppressive drugs are needed after an organ transplantation if this interaction between T cells and the innate immunity is temporarily blocked after the transplantation.

Aug. 19 - Women who received uterus transplants have delivered more than 70 infants worldwide since the first successful transplant in 2011, with 20 cases at a Texas medical center showing about the same success rate as with natural wombs, per new research in JAMA.

Aug. 21 - The risk of early heart failure following heart transplantation is lower if the donor heart is stored in a so-called “heart-in-a-box” instead of in the usual cooler with ice, according to a study conducted by the University of Gothenburg and published in The Lancet.