Dialysis history and transplant success

Some intriguing research shows that the life expectancy of a renal transplant is significantly negatively impacted by the amount of time the patient has spent on dialysis before getting a transplant. The mechanism by which this 'memory' operates is still unknown, but it is interesting that the body somehow 'learns' from long periods on dialysis that its role is not to be a hospitable place for kidneys to thrive. New kidneys will only be connected to arteries free of atherosclerosis, so the rapid rate at which the vascular system of the patient becomes sclerotic during dialysis can't account for this shorter life span of new kidneys according to the amount of time spent on dialysis.