Side effects that are probably hypersensitivity reactions include dizziness, diarrhea, fatigue, and rashes. Hair loss is often seen in transplant patients receiving the drug, but rarely occurs under other indications. Because azathioprine suppresses the bone marrow, patients can develop anaemia and be more susceptible to infection; regular monitoring of the blood count is recommended during treatment. Acute pancreatitis can also occur, especially in patients with Crohns disease. Treatment is discontinued in up to 30% of patients due these effects but therapeutic drug monitoring of the biologically active  metabolites, i.e. thiopurine nucleotides can help to optimize the efficacy and safety. Clinically, most hospitals resort to on-exchange LC-MS (liquid chromotography - mass spectrometry) but the newly developed approach of porous graphitic carbon based chromatography hyphenated with mass spectrometry appears superior with respect to patient care in this respect.Under FDA rules, like many other immunosuppressants, the use of this drug excludes eligibility for blood donation.It is listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans). Pharmacogenetics
The enzyme thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) is responsible for various activation and deactivation steps in azathioprines mechanism of action. The first metabolic step that azathioprine undergoes in the body is the conversion to 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP; see Pharmacokinetics), which is itself an immunosuppressant prodrug. The TPMT enzyme is responsible, in part, for the methylation of 6-MP into the inactive metabolite 6-methylmercaptopurine - this methylation prevents 6-MP from further conversion into active, cytotoxic thioguanine nucleotide (TGN) metabolites.
Birth defects in a child whose father was taking azathioprine have also been reported. Although no adequate and well-controlled studies have taken place in humans, when given to animals in doses equivalent to human dosages, teratogenesis was observed. Transplant patients already on this drug should not discontinue on becoming pregnant. This contrasts with the later-developed drugs tacrolimus and mycophenolate, which are contraindicated during pregnancy.Traditionally, as for all cytotoxic drugs, the manufacturer advises not to breastfeed whilst taking azathioprine, but the "lactation risk category" reported by Thomas Hale in his book Medications and Mothers Milk lists azathioprine as "L3", termed "moderately safe". Pharmacology
Pharmacokinetics
Azathioprine is absorbed from the gut to about 88%. Bioavailability varies greatly between individual patients, between 30 and 90%, because the drug is partly inactivated in the liver. Highest blood plasma concentrations, counting not only the drug itself, but also its metabolites, are reached after 1–2 hours, and the average plasma half-life is 26 to 80 minutes for azathioprine and 3–5 hours for drug plus metabolites. 20 to 30% are bound to plasma proteins while circulating in the bloodstream.Azathioprine is a prodrug, a substance that is not an active drug itself, but is activated in the body. This happens in several steps; at first, it is slowly and almost completely converted to 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) by reductive cleavage of the thioether (–S–). This is mediated by glutathione and similar compounds in the intestinal wall, the liver, and on red blood cells, without the aid of enzymes.