This book, the proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on
Transplantation and Clinical Immunology, held in Lyon, France, on May
25-26, 2000, addresses novel issues in terms of changing indications for
transplantation in the management of organ failure, whether humans will
remain the only source for organ procurement, prospects for engineering
in organ replacement, and whether transplantation will remain the most
appropriate approach to organ failure. Some promising treatments are
approached, such as enzymic and biochemical replacement, gene therapy,
tolerance induction, stem cell transplantation, and xenotransplantation.
In addition to the constant improvement in conservative management of
organ failure in general, ongoing research in selected fields is
reported in the proceedings, such as liver transplantation vs
artificial liver, novel dialysis strategies vs evolving
immunosuppression in kidney transplantation, islets transplantation and
external implantable insulin pumps vs pancreas transplantation in
diabetic patients, circulatory assistance and intramyocardial myoblast
injection vs heart transplantation. Pivotal experience in selected
emerging transplantations is included, that is, small bowel, limb, skin
and neuronal transplantation. Such fascinating perspectives raise
medical, economical, and ethical problems which are discussed in this
book.