Organ Trasplantation

Organ transplantation is a treatment of choice to replace damaged organs through the intervention of a donor. There are several types of donors according to their provenance. The donor of organs between two identical twins is called isograft, when donor and recipient is the same individual is called autograft, donor from the same species but different person is called allograft and donor coming from different species with the recipient is called xenograft (Fernandez, 2012). Apart of the above mentioned categories of donors, there are also three categories of donation by living persons. These are the directed donation to a loved one or a friend, the non-direct whereby donor gives an organ in the general pool to be transplanted in a recipient which is the first person in the waiting list. Finally, there is a directed donation to a stranger where donors have to decide to give their organs to a specific person that they did not have any previous emotional connection (Robert D. and Truog M.D., 2005).
All clinicians should have a good transplant immunology background so as to be more efficient and able to make better alternation in patients’ therapy if needed. Clinicians play an important role in explaining to patients the novel risk assessment and the treatment strategies and ongoing clinical trials they will go through (Heeger P.S. and Dinavahi MD.R, 2012). Human immune system is divided into innate and adaptive. Innate immunity is rapid but with no memory and little specificity. Innate immunity surrounds cellular components (eg. dentritic cells- DCs and natural killer cells -NKCs) and molecular components (eg. toll-like receptors- TLRs). Microbial products or endogenous pro-inflammatory ligands are released during the mechanical and ischemia-reperfusion injury (Ischemia-reperfusion is an injury observed when blood supply returns to tissue after ischemia period or reduced amount of oxygen and nutrients resulting in tissue damage) activating the innate immunity to