Immunosuppression

Abstract

Transplantation began as a clinical discipline with basic science seeking to explain, improve, and prevent consequences of the clinical practice. The primary consequence is the well-known outcome of immunologically mediated organ transplant rejection. Indeed, basic science has been evolving, along with clinical practice, to find strategies aimed at downregulating the immune system to a level that will prevent allograft rejection. This is commonly referred to in the transplant world as "immunosuppression." © 2009 Springer US.