Transplantation Immunobiology

Transplantation Immunobiology 

HANCOCK, W. W.; TURKA, L. A.  Transplantation Immunobiology  Immunological Reviews, v.196, 5-6, 2003.

The act of transplantation provides the opportunity to replace a damaged organ or tissue and return to normal health. However, there are many twists and turns and pitfalls and pratfalls before that happens in many cases, and for some it never happens. Understanding the immune response to an allograft and how to control remain works in progress, despite the clear success of clinical transplantation currently being performed in hundreds of centers worldwide. We still need drugs to control rejection, and each agent brings its own toxicity and side effects. Given too much immunesuppression, the patient is at risck of infection or malignance. Given too little, the patient may reject the graft. Hence there are many and varied problems and potencial solutions in transplant immunobiology.