Half a century of Dutch transplant immunology

The sixties have not only witnessed the start of the Dutch Society for Immunology (NvvI), but were also the flourishing beginning of the discipline of transplant immunology. The interest in immunology in the Netherlands had its start in the context of blood transfusions and not for instance in the field of infectious disease, as in many other countries. It began in the 1950-ties thanks to Joghem van Loghem at that time director of the Central Laboratory of Blood Transfusion in Amsterdam. The discoveries of these times have had major impact for transfusion medicine, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and organ transplantation. In this review we will look back at some early highlights of Dutch transplant immunology and put them in the perspective of some recent developments.