Organ transplantations: from basic research to clinical applications. A personal odyssey

This article is a summary of the impact on contemporary medicine of organ and tissue transplantation. The article describes how, via trial and error, and beginning from basic research, the results of organ transplantation have steadily increased as has the number of organs that can be transplanted. Currently, the short-term results of most organ transplants, with the notable exception of the pancreas and the lung, are close to perfect; very few organs are lost any longer due to acute rejection. There is, however, little information on long-term results using the current modalities of immunosuppression, particularly on the effect of chronic rejection on late graft survival.