The transplantation of organs, cells, and tissues has burgeoned during the last quarter century, with the development of multiple new specialty fields. However, the basic principles that made this possible were established over a three-decade period, beginning during World War II and ending in 1974. At the historical consensus conference held at UCLA in March 1999, 11 early workers in the basic science or clinical practice of transplantation (or both) reached agreement on the most significant contributions of this era that ultimately made transplantation the robust clinical discipline it is today. These discoveries and achievements are summarized here in six tables and annotated with references.The symposium making up this issue of the Journal was held at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and announced by the Department of Surgery hosts as "a unique and historic meeting at which pioneers of transplantation from around the world will present and discuss landmarks in the advancement of transplantation biology." The participants (in alphabetical order) were: Leslie B. Brent (London), Roy Y. Calne (Cambridge, UK), Jean Dausset (Paris), Robert A. Good (St. Petersburg, FL), Joseph E. Murray (Boston), Norman E.Correspondence to: Carl G. Groth.
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Author ManuscriptWorld J Surg. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 November 1.
Published in final edited form as:World J Surg. 2000 July ; 24(7): 834-843.
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NIH-PA Author ManuscriptShumway (Palo Alto), Robert S. Schwartz (Boston), Thomas E. Starzl (Pittsburgh), Paul I. Terasaki (Los Angeles), E. Donnall Thomas (Seattle), Jon J. van Rood (Leiden).Each of these 11 pioneers provided for publication their reflections about their own unique contributions. The ultimate objective, however, was to reach a consensus by the group on what were the most critical historical discoveries that made transplantation a form of clinical therapy. Carl G. Groth (Stockholm) was invited to be the Chairman for these consensus deliberations and to prepare the executive summary.Historical landmark status was restricted to contributions made at least a quarter of a century ago. By this time it had been established that rejection of organ allografts could be prevented or reversed with immunosuppressive drugs and that variable donor-specific immunologic tolerance of the graft subsequently developed in many patients. Long-term survival of human recipients of organ and bone marrow allografts had been repeatedly obtained, ensuring continuation of such clinical efforts. A large number of HLA antigens had been discovered, allowing efforts at tissue matching to proceed. The scientific articles annotating this progress are listed in six tables under the following headings: transplantation immunology, bone marrow transplantation, renal transplantation, liver transplantation, heart transplantation, and tissue matching. The material presented in these tables, including the citations, originated from the participants of the symp...