The last two decades have witnessed a pandemic in antibody development, with over 600 entering clinical studies and a total of 28 approved by the FDA and European Union. The incorporation of biologics in transplantation has made a significant impact on allograft survival. Herein, we review the armamentarium of clinical and preclinical biologics used for organ transplantation--with the exception...

The immunological barrier remains the major obstacle to the widespread use of transplantation as a replacement therapy for terminal organ failure. Since the first successful renal transplant, performed by Hume et al. (1952), there has been an elusive search for agents that can render the immune mechanism unresponsive to the specific alloantigen stimulus of the engrafted organ, while sparing non...

As the ability to transplant organs and tissues has grown, the demand for these procedures has increased as well--to the point at which it far exceeds the available supply creating the core ethical challenge for transplantation--rationing. The gap between supply and demand, although large, is worse than it appears to be. There are two key steps to gaining access to a transplant. First, one must...

Recent evidence suggests that passenger leukocytes migrate after organ transplantation and produce persistent chimerism, which is essential for sustained survival of the allograft. Here, we describe how this hematolymphopoietic chimerism provides an important framework for interpretation of post-transplant phenomena and for initiation of therapeutically oriented transplantation research.

Firstly, this venture is a new attempt to use social networking Web sites as a new form of media in the field of organ transplantation. All other forms of media such as print, television, radio, etc. have been used and exhausted for making people aware of the importance of becoming organ donors. However, with the Internet becoming a significant extension of people’s lives today, it has still re...

Pediatric organ donation and organ transplantation can have a significant life-extending benefit to the young recipients of these organs and a high emotional impact on donor and recipient families. Pediatricians, pediatric medical specialists, and pediatric transplant surgeons need to be better acquainted with evolving national strategies that involve organ procurement and organ transplantation...

The early history of transplantation is born of legends. The Saints Cosmas and Damian, who lived in the third century allegedly, treated a white patient by removing one of his legs and by grafting that of a black man who had died the same day (Figure 1.1) (1). In modern times, many experimental transplantations, mostly in dogs and cats and then in humans, were attempted in the twenties and thir...