Steroid s

Normally the adrenal gland secretes corticosteroids. When given in an amount above the normal it depresses the immune system in general and helps allows the body to accept a graft. In doing so, opportunistic infections can occur due to the impaired immune system response to fight them. Widely used in transplantation is the steroid Prednisone which causes side effects like: osteoporosis, face swelling, headache, skin cancer. Not everybody develop side effects but the use of Prednisone increase the risk of diseases like cancer and osteoporosis. With new drugs like Cellcept and FK 506 the use of prednisone for long periods of time is decreasing.