Progress in the Determination of Histocompatibility

Experimental and clinical data currently available suggest that of the various possible ways in which the outcome of organ homotransplantation might be improved upon, the one which holds most immediate promise involves devising a selection procedure capable of excluding gross histoincompatibilities. The various approaches to the problem of tissue typing or matching that are presently being investigated are reviewed from the viewpoint of their underlying principles and their potentialities. These methods include direct grafting tests, serologic procedures aimed at matching or identifying pertinent isoantigenic specificities associated with formed elements of the blood, especially leukocytes, and various extracorporeal biologic assays of the capacity of an intended host's immunologically competent cells to react against the transplantation isoantigens of a possible donor. The latter category of tests includes the normallymphocyte transfer test and the irradiated-hamster test.