Thymus Tissue Used to Create Immune System in Children

Using thymus tissue that is normally thrown away after heart surgery, researchers at Duke University Medical Center have created an immune system for two children who normally would have died. The children suffer from DiGeorge syndrome, a rare disorder occurring in one of every 2,000 births that is characterized by a flawed thymus gland or no thymus gland at all, leaving them defenseless against infections.

The Duke physicians implanted thin strips of thymus into the children’s thighs when they were infants. The team reports in today’s New England Journal of Medicine that the children are now 1 1/2 and 6 years old and that their immune systems are functioning normally. Three others who received the transplants, however, died of infections before the thymus tissue could establish itself.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II