immunosuppression
Sign in to saveImmunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other conditions.
Key facts
- Interventions.Name
- Immunosuppression
- Interventions.Image
- Polyomavirus.jpg
- Interventions.Caption
- Micrograph showing an opportunistic infection due to immunosuppression - large (blue) cell below-center-left infected with a polyomavirus. Urine cytology specimen.
- Interventions.ICD10
- D89.9
- Interventions.MeshID
- D007165
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Deliberately induced
- Non-deliberate immunosuppression
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other conditions.
In general, deliberately induced immunosuppression is performed to prevent the body from rejecting an organ transplant. Additionally, it is used for treating graft-versus-host disease after a bone marrow transplant, or for the treatment of auto-immune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's disease, or Crohn's disease. This is typically done using medications, but may involve surgery (splenectomy), plasmapheresis, or radiation. A person who is undergoing immunosuppression, or whose immune system is weak for some other reasons (such as chemotherapy or HIV), is said to be immunocompromised.