University of Pittsburgh doctors have given a woman who received a transplanted kidney donated by her brother some of his blood stem cells in an experimental attempt to reduce her need for anti-rejection medications.

Sharon Long, 54, of Bradford, got a 20-minute transfusion of blood stem cells three days after receiving the transplanted kidney from her 47-year-old brother.

While doctors have previously transplanted bone marrow into kidney recipients in an effort to keep the kidney from being rejected by the patient's immune system, this is the first reported instance of transplant doctors using a technique called peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

This procedure previously has been used in cancer treatment to restore stem cells that have been destroyed by high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.

Instead of obtaining stem cells from bone marrow, the stem cells are obtained from circulating blood after the donor takes medication to increase their numbers.

As part of the experiment, Long is not taking steroids -- a mainstay of anti-rejection treatment for most transplant recipients.

Other sources: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette