With more soldiers returning from combat suffering devastating injuries, doctors are turning to a reconstructive surgery that uses tissue transplantation along with immunosuppression therapy. This approach has had encouraging results; however, rejection of transplanted tissue from an unmatched donor remains a critical complication. A study has found a way around this.
It has demonstrated in mice that a single infusion of adipose-derived stromal cells – stem cells taken from fat in a minimally invasive procedure – from an unmatched donor combined with a low dose of bone marrow cells resulted in stable long-term tolerance of the skin graft.
