Organ Transplant?

Several days ago, I asked a question regarding the effects of receiving the wrong blood type in a transfusion. The answers I received were excellent, but I now want to know if these effects also apply to organ transplants in which the organ is of the wrong type.
Answer:
Organ transplantation is done after testing for antigen matching in a way that is different from blood type. The things that are checked are called HLA types. It would be inappropriate to attempt to explain the major histocompatability complex and it's genetics here. However, if you have questions about this, you can contact me personally or read about it.

Organ transplants are seldom a "perfect 6 antigen match" and they do just fine. The reason is that medical control of the immune system is very effective and capable of surpressing the host's reaction to the transplanted tissue.

That being said, there are a few recognized forms of "rejection" which absolutely do happen.

Hyperacute rejection happens when the organ gets destroyed right as it's being sewn into place. This is extremely rare, but it involves a pre-formed antibody being carried by the recipient which acts against the transplant. As soon as blood flows into the organ, it begins to be destroyed.

Acute rejection is a lymphocyte mediated response to the organ which is treated with heavy pulses of immunosuppressive medication directed at the lymphocytes. Episodes of acute rejection can happen at any time, but they most often occur early in the course of the new transplant... within days of surgery.

Chronic rejection is either a process involving the additive damage from multiple episodes of acute rejection or else it represents a slow decline in organ function due to a variety of processes including vascular damage... the result is a steady slow decline of transplant function over a number of years.

In order to not waste organs, efforts are made to optimize the antigen matching so that the organ goes to a good recipient, but there are a number of factors that determine who gets an organ - not the least of which is the patient's condition. On organ sharing waiting lists, there are point systems that include points for how long people have waited, how sick they are, and also how good an antigen match they have to an organ that becomes available. None of this matters when people decide to donate organs to their loved ones. In this case, after some basic testing, the organ transplant can take place if the match isn't horrible and both people are OK for surgery. The immune suppressive medication is the key to success.

I hope that helps. It's an amazingly complex topic! I have to avoid detail on this one because I have no idea at what level you want to deal with the question.

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There is very little chance of an organ transplant being done if the donor's and recipient's tissue and blood type are not a match. Because even after a successful transplant and all the cutting edge drugs to suppres the immune system....the donor's organ is still a foreign object and the recepient's body will start to attack it. Most post-op transplant patients deal with chronic rejection as time passes. Even with a perfect tissue match and drug therapy it is still a matter of time before rejection causes the organ to fail.

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I had a cornea transplant not as severe since there is no blood in it and as a greater risk of succes however just like organ transplant the body can reject it cuasing it to fail.

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