The Nobel Lectures in Immunology. The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1980. The major histocompatibility complex in man. Past, present, and future concepts.

As George Snell (1) so rightly said, the supergene, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), is like a page from the nature book read outside of the context. Today this context is beginning to be better understood. We would here like to recall the evolution of concepts regarding these molecular structures found in the-. membrane of cells. First, attention was centered on the almost botanical description of their genetic polymorphism. Then the spotlight was turned, for several years, on their importance in transplantation. More recently, their role in the immune response has become more and more apparent. This, however, is probably not the last stage in our search. We, as well as others (2-5), have suggested that the essential function of these structures resides in self-recognition. These structures are, in fact, the identity card of the entire organism. We will discuss these four viewpoints successively. Far from being mutually exclusive, they are landmarks in the stages of our thought process as we have gained deeper knowledge of the subject.