The researchers and surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) have played a major role in pioneering transplantation surgery. As the world’s largest and busiest transplant program, UPMC remains a leader in the field. Since 1981, it has performed more than 12,000 transplants, an accomplishment unmatched by any other program. UPMC also offers more types of transplantation procedures than any other center.
UPMC’s program remains on the cutting edge because its researchers are continually studying the basic science of how healthy organs function, refining their knowledge of how diseased organs fail, and working every day to prevent organs from succumbing to rejection. They also are spearheading new research into understanding the mechanisms of organ rejection and how to prevent it.
Each day, this research is translated into new therapies that enable UPMC specialists to achieve survival rates that consistently outperform national averages. These procedures give patients suffering from the most complex medical conditions hope where none existed before. Its advanced research in the fields of artificial organs and regenerative medicine may someday even make transplantation unnecessary.
Unlike other medical centers, UPMC offers transplants to people who many consider to be too sick or too old. UPMC specialists take on these tougher cases and work closely with recipients to ensure they are as medically stable as they can be when they receive their organs.
UPMC specialists also perform more living-donor liver and kidney transplants than other transplantation centers. A living donor makes it possible for a patient to schedule the surgery when it makes the most sense medically, rather than waiting for when an organ may be available. With the ongoing shortage of deceased donors, there is no guarantee that all patients will survive the wait.
UPMC is also developing new ways to prevent organ rejection. The massive, lifelong doses of antirejection drugs pioneered at UPMC originally made transplantation possible, but these drugs can cause serious side effects. UPMC has also pioneered new “pretreatments” designed to prevent initial rejection, often making large doses of antirejection drugs immediately after surgery unnecessary. Over time, it's often possible to wean patients to very low doses of immunosuppressants. This method also has made the corticosteroid family of antirejection drugs, which have particularly strong side effects, unnecessary. The result is higher survival rates and a better quality of life. UPMC researchers also continue to study why some patients reject their donor organs, when others don’t. The ultimate goal is to make long-term antirejection treatment entirely unnecessary.
Finally, UPMC’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine is taking the field of organ replacement into entirely new territory. Its ongoing research may someday yield therapies that will repair diseased organs rather than replace them – technologies that hinge on better understandings of how the body creates new tissues.
McGowan researchers are exploring new approaches, such as a patch that encourages soft tissues like skin to regrow, and the use of cell transplantation, designed to repair heart tissues, which is being tested in patients to determine its safety and effectiveness.
The McGowan Institute continues to lead groundbreaking work in the development of artificial replacements for human organs, including hearts, lungs, livers, and blood. One breakthrough technology – an experimental artificial lung device that can replace 50 percent of the lungs' natural capacity – may soon act as a bridge to recovery in temporary respiratory failure.
For more information about transplantation at UPMC, visit the Starzl Transplantation Institute website. For more information about regenerative medicine, visit the McGowan Insitute for Regenerative Medicine.