Thymectomy and renal homotransplantation.

The course of forty-six consecutive patients were studied for 3½–5 years after renal homotransplantation from related and unrelated donors. Transthoracic thymectomy was performed before transplantation in twenty-four cases; the other twenty-two recipients served as controls. A similar spectrum of donor-recipient lymphocyte antigen compatibility was present in both the test and control series.

Immunofluorescent examination of biopsies from long-term renal allografts.

Immunofluorescent examination of open renal biopsies revealed clear-cut glomerular localization of immunoglobulins not related clearly to the quality of donor-recipient histocompatibility in 19 of 34 renal allografts. The biopsies were obtained 18 to 31 months after transplantations primarily from related donors with a variable quality of histocompatibility match. IgG was the predominant immunoglobulin class fixed in 13 biopsies, and IgM in six.

Infections in recipients of liver homografts.

Seventeen patients received liver homografts between 1963 and May, 1968. The eight treated before July, 1967, died within 34 days; seven had progressive infections with gram-negative bacilli, and cytomegalovirus. The infections were similar to but more fulminating than those after renal homotransplantation.