A 13-year-old patient suffering from liver cirrhosis due to a rare, intractable disease has regained a healthy daily life after sequential transplants of her mother’s liver and hematopoietic stem cells.

On the 26th, Asan Medical Center in Seoul announced that it had successfully induced “immune tolerance” in 13-year-old patient Yoo Eun-seo, who has the rare intractable disease hypereosinophilic syndrome, by sequentially transplanting her mother’s liver and haploidentical hematopoietic stem cells. As a result, liver function and hematopoietic function are being maintained normally even after complete discontinuation of immunosuppressants.

Hypereosinophilic syndrome is a disease in which eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, proliferate abnormally due to a bone marrow disorder and attack major organs. Yoo was diagnosed with this disease in 2017 and has since undergone treatment, including a colostomy. In 2023, she developed liver failure complications such as esophageal variceal bleeding, and in 2024 she experienced ascites, a condition in which fluid accumulates in the abdomen. In August of the same year, she received a liver transplant from her mother. To treat the underlying cause of the disease, the bone marrow disorder, the medical team also transplanted her mother’s hematopoietic stem cells in February 2025.

In general, organ transplant recipients must take immunosuppressants for life to prevent immune cells from recognizing the transplanted organ as a foreign invader and attacking it. In Yoo’s case, however, hematopoietic stem cells from the same donor established a new immune system that recognizes the already transplanted maternal liver not as an external organ but as its own. Asan Medical Center in Seoul explained, “This is the first case in Korea in which immune tolerance has been induced through sequential transplantation in a pediatric patient with hypereosinophilic syndrome.”

After the hematopoietic stem cell transplant, it was confirmed that 100% of Yoo’s blood cells had been replaced by her mother’s cells and that no further abnormal eosinophils were being produced.

Yoo’s mother, Ms. Park, said, “My heart ached when Eun-seo could not freely enjoy snacks with her friends because she had to take immunosuppressants,” adding, “It feels like a dream that she can now run around and eat whatever she wants without medication.”

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