The clinical use of antilymphocyte globulin in renal homotransplantation.

Twenty patients were treated with antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) which was prepared from the serum of immunized horses. The ALG was used as an adjuvant to azathioprine and prednisone and its use limited to 4 months. The surviving patients are now 1 to 7 months postoperative. There was 1 death, the consequence of a technical accident. The function in the remaining 19 patients is excellent, despite reduced doses of azathioprine and especially prednisone. Biopsies were obtained in the first 8 consecutive cases from 108 to 145 days after operation. There was no evidence in the specimens of either Masugi-like or serum sickness nephritis.