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Transplantation for the millennium: attaining tolerance in our time--the Holy Grail
1Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA. hal.helderman@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu
Despite tremendous advances in organ transplantation over the past 40 years, life-long immunosuppression is still required to maintain the transplanted organ. The induction of human tolerance to defined foreign antigens while maintaining completely intact all the rest of the immune repertoire, in the absence of maintenance immunosuppression, continues to be the dream of the transplant scientist and clinician, the "Holy Grail," the quest which energizes much recent research. This article presents an overview on recent developments on transplantation tolerance.
Despite tremendous advances in organ transplantation over the past 40 years, life-long immunosuppression is still required to maintain the transplanted organ. The induction of human tolerance to defined foreign antigens while maintaining completely intact all the rest of the immune repertoire, in the absence of maintenance immunosuppression, continues to be the dream of the transplant scientist and clinician, the "Holy Grail," the quest which energizes much recent research. This article presents an overview on recent developments on transplantation tolerance.