In medicine, the transfer of a tissue or organ from one human being to another or from one part of the body to another (skin grafting). In most organ transplants, the operation is for life-saving purposes, though the immune system tends to reject foreign tissue. Careful matching and immunosuppressive drugs must be used, but these are not always successful.
Corneal grafting, which may restore sight to a diseased or damaged eye, was pioneered 1905, and is the oldest successful human transplant procedure. Of the internal organs, kidneys were first transplanted successfully in the early 1950s and remain most in demand. Modern transplants also encompass the heart, lungs, liver, pancreatic tissue, bone, and bone-marrow. Most transplant material is taken from cadaver donors, usually those suffering death of the brainstem, or from frozen tissue banks. In rare cases, kidneys, corneas, and part of the liver may be obtained from living donors. Besides the shortage of donated material, the main problem facing transplant surgeons is rejection of the donated organ by the recipient's body. The 1990 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology was awarded to two US surgeons, Donnall Thomas and Joseph Murray, for their pioneering work on organ and tissue transplants.
1. An operation moving an organ from one person (the donor) to another (the recipient); SYN. transplantation.
2. The act of uprooting and moving a plant to a new location; SYN. transplanting. + prikaži više