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Xenotransplantation: The Transplantation of Organs and Tissues Between Species

1997

Synopsis

This is a time of excitement and progress in the field of xenotransplantation. The work described in this book traces the development of the science of cross-species transplantation, summarizes the current state of our knowledge, and focuses on approaches directed toward future clinical application. The important question is not whether xenotransplantation will succeed, but rather how and under what circumstances xenografts will provide predictable enough results to warrant clinical application. The fact that the best results to date in clinical xenografting were achieved over three decades ago should not be a matter of discouragement, but rather a stimulus to apply new approaches to this area of work. The shortage of human organs for transplantation is cited frequently as the driving force behind the increased interest in xenotransplantation. This shortage is an undeniable fact, but there are additional potential advantages of xenotrans­plantation, such as the ability to schedule replacement surgery on an elective basis and the modification of animals, organs, and tissues to improve acceptabil­ity in the human host. The advances in the basic science of xenotransplantation outlined in this book give hope that the immunologic barriers to xenotransplantation will be overcome and that transplanted organs and tissues will succeed consistently in humans. However, if our experience with human allografts provides an analogy, we may anticipate that clinical progress in xenografts will be plagued by failures and rewarded by successes, often without a complete understanding of the mechan­isms involved.

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Every Living Creature: How Xenotransplantation Will Change Our Lives

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Clinical Xenotransplantation: Pathways and Progress in the Transplantation of Organs and Tissues Between Species

This title provides an illuminating examination of the current state of xenotransplantation – grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between members of different species – and how it might move forward into the clinic. To be sure, this is a critical topic, as a major problem that remains worldw...

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