# Transplantation: platform to study recurrence of disease

## TL;DR

This paper explores how organ transplantation can help understand and treat diseases that come back after the transplant.

## Contribution

The paper introduces the idea of using transplants to study disease recurrence and its underlying mechanisms across different organs.

## Key findings

- Disease recurrence after transplantation can reveal insights into original disease pathogenesis.
- Examples include FSGS recurrence after kidney transplants and autoimmunity after pancreas transplants.
- Expanding this approach may uncover new mechanisms behind organ failure.

## Abstract

Beyond the direct benefit that a transplanted organ provides to an individual recipient, the study of the transplant process has the potential to create a better understanding of the pathogenesis, etiology, progression and possible therapy for recurrence of disease after transplantation while at the same time providing insight into the original disease. Specific examples of this include: 1) recurrence of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) after kidney transplantation, 2) recurrent autoimmunity after pancreas transplantation, and 3) recurrence of disease after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) for cirrhosis related to progressive steatosis secondary to jejuno-ileal bypass (JIB) surgery. Our team has been studying these phenomena and their immunologic underpinnings, and we suggest that expanding the concept to other pathologic processes and/or transplanted organs that harbor the risk for recurrent disease may provide novel insight into the pathogenesis of a host of other disease processes that lead to organ failure.