Transplantation Milestones
Viewed With One- and Two-Way Paradigms of Tolerance
- Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD;
- Anthony J. Demetris, MD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
TEN YEARS ago in this journal's Landmark Article series of reproduced historical publications, the remarkable impact was described1 of the 1956 report in JAMA by Merrill et al2 of an identical twin renal transplantation. The operation was performed in December 1954, by Joseph E. Murray (Nobel Laureate, 1990) and his associates at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Mass. By avoiding problems with rejection, such cases symbolized what might someday be accomplished if the immunologic reaction could be controlled. Then, on January 24, 1959, the barrier posed by genetic nonidentity was breached for the kidneys with a successful fraternal twin transplantation3 by the same team.
Over the ensuing 35 years, the beachhead has been expanded by the successful allotransplantation of the liver,4 heart,5 lung,6 pancreas,7 intestine,8 multiple abdominal viscera,9 and bone marrow.10,11 Such milestones are never eroded from the landscape, but
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Department of Surgery, 3601 Fifth Ave, 5C Falk Clinic, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (Dr Starzl).
