Immunosuppression

Immunosuppression is the medicalsuppression of the immune system. This is usually done to prevent the body from rejectingan organ transplant.

When an organis transplanted, the immune system of the recipient will most likely recognize it as foreign tissue and attack it. The destruction of the organ will, if untreated, end in the death of the recipient.

To prevent that, radiation therapywas used in the past, but now immunosuppressant drugsare used to inhibit the reaction of the immune system. The downside is that with such a deactivated immune system, the body is very vulnerable to opportunistic infections, even those usually considered harmless. Also, prolonged use of immunosuppressants increases the risk of cancer.

Immunosuppression is also used to counteract autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritisor Crohn's disease, to prevent the immune system from attacking healthy parts of the body.

Cortisonewas the first immunosuppressant identified. The more effective azathioprinewas identified in 1959, but it was not until the discovery of cyclosporinein 1970 that transplant surgery found a sufficiently powerful immunosuppressive.

A list of immunosuppressant drugs is given on the transplant rejectionpage.

A person who is undergoing immunosuppression, or whose immune system is weak for other reasons (e.g. chemotherapy and HIV) is said to be immunocompromised.

See also:

• Immunosuppressive drugfr:Immunosuppression

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunosuppression Wikipedia article Immunosuppression.