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March 9, 2022

Anna Murray 

On August 16, 2021, thymus tissue was processed for transplant to a pediatric cardiac patient at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. The baby is doing well, according to doctors at Duke University, following a first-of-its-kind heart transplant that included a special method to help prevent rejection of the new organ. The thymus plays an important role in the development of the immune system. 

Last summer, Easton Sinnamon, a 6-month-old baby from Asheboro, North Carolina, received his one-of-a-kind transplant. However, it wasn't until March 7 that Duke doctors discovered that the specially processed thymus implants are producing immune cells that do not treat the baby's new heart as foreign tissue, as they had hoped.

The thymus gland promotes the development of T-cells, which fight foreign substances in the body, and thus plays an important role in the human immune system. Duke University had previously tested the use of thymus tissue in heart transplants on animals, but never on a living organ recipient. 

If the procedure is successful, subsequent transplant patients will not reject their donated organ and will be able to avoid long-term immunosuppressive medication, which is harmful to the body, according to Joseph W. Turek, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Duke University.