The use of modern immunosuppressive drugs can reduce the need for a steroid therapy as early as seven days after a transplant surgery without an impact on maintenance of functions of the lung, according to a new study by researchers at UC.

Chronic health conditions that are considered to be common to kidney transplant recipients can be minimized via elimination of a daily dose of steroids, as per Steve Woodle, MD, Chief of UC’s transplant surgery division, principal investigator and designer of the study.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“Steroids have long been the primary source of morbidity and complications following successful kidney transplantation,” Woodle says. “This study demonstrates that elimination of even small, daily prednisone (pred-ne-zone) doses does not compromise results while minimizing weight gain, diabetes and bone complications.”

Corticosteroids were the first anti-rejection drug used in transplant patients, dating back to the first transplant surgeries over 50 years ago.

Traditionally patients who have undergone organ transplantation have required life-long steroid treatments given in combination with other drugs that help suppress the body’s immune system and allow the transplanted organ to function properly.

However, the steroid treatment—given as the oral drug, prednisone—can cause serious side effects including cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol and blood pressure, weight gain, diabetes, bone weakness and cataracts.

It was remarked by Woodle that the risk of injection episodes in patients was marginally increased with an early steroid discontinuation process. He hopes that even this minor risk of increased rejection combined with long-term gains would not change much with development of new drugs and modern anti-rejection drugs.

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