The first successful kidney transplantation between monozygotic identical twins did not require any immunosuppressive drugs. Clinical application of azathioprine and glucocorticosteroids allowed the transfer of organs between genetically disparate donors and recipients. Transplantation is now the standard of care, a life-saving procedure for patients with failed organs. Progress in our understa...

background acute rejection remains a major problem in renal transplantation and represents one of the most important causes of chronic allograft dysfunction and late graft loss. daclizumab is a genetically engineered human igg1 monoclonal antibody that binds specifically to the α chain of the interleukin-2 receptor, and may thus reduce the risk of rejection after renal transplantation. objectiv...

Immunosuppressive drugs were given to seven patients with polymyositis. The in-vitro activity of peripheral blood lymphocytes had previously been studied in five of these patients with findings suggestive of disturbed immunological processes. Some improvement occurred in five cases, but only in two was the improvement marked and sustained. In this small series of cases, the response to treatmen...

Although there is general agreement on the favorable effect of immunosuppression in eosinophilic, granulomatous, giant-cell myocarditis and in lymphocytic myocarditis associated with connective tissue disorders and with rejection of a transplanted heart, its therapeutic role in lymphocytic inflammatory cardiomyopathy (ICM) is still debated. Previous retrospective studies reported a relevant cli...

In the last decade, a paradigm shift has occurred in the field of renal transplantation. The use of new and powerful immunosuppressive drugs has led to excellent short-term patient and graft survival and very low acute rejection (AR) rates. Two burning questions have become paramount. The first is how can we improve long-term patient and graft survival despite the fact that more elderly patient...