First Reliable Report of Transplant Surgery

HISTORY
The first reliable report of a transplant surgery is from 1823 when German surgeon Carl Bunger performed plastic surgery on a woman’s nose, grafting skin from her thigh. By 1863, French physiologist Paul Bert had demonstrated that tissues transplanted from one person to another are rejected. Forty years later, German biologist Carl O. Jensen found that this rejection was carried out by the immune system.

During the early 20th century, researchers such as the French surgeon Alexis Carrel and American physiologist Charles Guthrie developed the surgical techniques needed for performing transplants, but rejection remained a problem. In 1958 French immunologist Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset discovered the histocompatibility system for tissue matching.

Minimizing histocompatibility differences, along with the development of the first immunosuppressive drugs azathioprine and prednisone, made transplants possible in the 1950s. Nonetheless, they remained relatively rare until Swiss biochemist Jean Borel discovered the remarkable immunosuppression properties of cyclosporine in 1972.
Cyclosporine revolutionized the field when it was marketed in 1983, making transplants more common.




Thomas H. Maugh II