Gut bacteria helps transplant success

THE key to successful organ transplants might lie in the gut.

Researchers at the University of Maryland in the US found that transplanting the faeces of a pregnant animal into the bowels of mice made their bodies more tolerant of a subsequent heart transplant.

The immune system — influenced by the gut bacteria — is suppressed during pregnancy to prevent the body rejecting the foetus. The scientists theorised it could prevent the body from attacking unfamiliar transplanted tissue in the same way.

In all the mice that had this treatment, the heart transplant survived, whereas in control groups, the survival rate was as low as one in five.