A research team at Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón has developed a world-pioneering cell-based treatment designed to prevent transplant rejection. The technique is already being used to treat three infant heart transplant recipients, all of whom are progressing favorably.

The treatment, developed entirely at this public Madrid hospital over the past six years, helps prevent immune rejection and could indefinitely prolong the survival of the transplanted organ, thereby improving the patient’s quality of life, according to the Community of Madrid.

Preventing Rejection — and Immunosuppressive Drugs

This new approach uses thymus-derived regulatory T cells (known as thyTreg) to prevent organ rejection and aims to eliminate the need for immunosuppressive drugs. The study is supported by the Organización Nacional de Trasplantes (ONT) and endorsed by the Director of the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program.

The Regional Minister of Health of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, attended the project presentation and highlighted the importance of this research in ensuring patient survival by preventing organ rejection without the need to administer immunosuppressive medication.

The technique, which could soon be implemented in other hospitals in the region, has already been applied to three transplanted infants treated with this globally innovative therapy developed at a public hospital in Madrid.

First Treatments at Gregorio Marañón

The first patient to receive the therapy was six-month-old Irene, born with a congenital heart defect that required a heart transplant. She is now progressing favorably in her immune response.

Researchers are closely analyzing how thyTreg therapy may reduce the risk of rejecting her new heart, particularly during the first year post-transplant — considered the most critical period.

In the months following treatment, Irene has shown higher levels of Treg cells than typically observed in similar patients who did not receive cell therapy. The presence of these cells appears to be keeping inflammatory mechanisms and immune cell proliferation that could trigger rejection under control.

ThyTreg cell therapy may restore proper immune balance and could completely inhibit or significantly reduce immune responses responsible for rejection, potentially allowing indefinite survival of the transplanted organ — and extending the patient’s life.

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