Paper Summary:

This paper discusses human organ transplantation. It first looks at activate immune responses which lead to a graft rejection. The paper then discusses the shortage of human organs for transplanatation and the option of xenotransplantation, or the process of transplanting cells, tissues or organs from one species to another. The paper specifically analyzes the current developments in this area and the importance of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins which are transport molecules.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
The Major Histocompatability Complex
Xenotransplantation
Rejection
Current Developments

From the Paper:

"The recent and current developments in transplantation focus mainly on the development of immunosuppressant drugs. Steroid-free immunosuppression is being undertaken on large scale with use of Campath-1H (a humanised monoclonal antibody. This hopes to avoid the side-effects of steroids. While short-term outcomes are outstanding, long-term outcomes are still unknown at present. Although calcineurin inhibitors have lowered the rate acute rejection and improved early renal allograft survival, their use has been implicated in the development of chronic nephrotoxicity. A prospective, randomized trial in kidney transplantation comparing sirolimus-MMF-prednisone to tacrolimus-MMF-prednisone has been carried out on 84 patients and the study showed that a CNI-free regimen using sirolimus-MMF-prednisone produced similar acute rejection rates, graft survival and renal function after 1 to 2 years of transplantation compared to tacrolimus-MMF-prednisone.
Calcineurin-Inhibitor-Free Immunosuppression is currently undergoing extensive trialing, the result of which would be to allow sufficient immunosuppression, without the nephrotoxicity that is associated with standard regimens that include calcineurin inhibitors. Positive results have yet to be demonstrated in any trial."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Histocompatibility Testing in Organ Transplantation Rene J. Duquesnoy, Ph.D Professor of Pathology and Surgery University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
• Wikipedia contributors, "Major histocompatibility complex," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Major_histocompatibility_complex&oldid=39742136 (accessed February 16, 2006).
• Taken from http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk for the "The Principles of Protein Structure '97 Accredited Advanced Certificate Course". 1997. Anon.
• Taken from http://www.bio.org/bioethics March 2000.Anon
• Taken from http://biomed.brown.edu. Anon. 2000. Transplant Rejection Therapy Module

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