T cells in transplantation immunity.

Abstract

This paper reviews the following problems in transplantation immunity: (i) short-lived ability to transfer immunity or suppression, in contrast to long-lived immunological memory in the autochthonous animal; (ii) short-lived ability to transfer graft-resistance, in contrast to long-lived ability to transfer helper activity for B-cells; (iii) the response to H-Y, as a system that might solve some outstanding problems in antigen presentation; and (iv) the contrast between live and killed allogeneic cells as immunogens. All of these problems, it is suggested, are amenable to study by modern methods. Students like me were drawn into Peter Medawar's orbit in the 1940s and 1950s by an irresistible mix of intellectual challenge and the glamour of experimental surgery. Much the same was happening elsewhere in the laboratories of Ray Owen, Milan Hasek, George Snell, Burnet, and Florey, and by 1960 the transplantation immunologists could justly claim to have opened up a whole new area of ideas in biology: we had discovered the lymphocyte as the antigen-sensitive cell, and the principles of immunological tolerance; we had revived interest in cellular immunity, and it was we who found the MHC (even if we had little idea of its real meaning). But by 1960 the first wave of success had passed, and the penetration of immunology by molecular biology had begun. Interest in transplantation immunity perceptibly declined, although many groups continued to address important problems, particularly in the field of organ transplantation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)