In the past 50 years, organ transplantation has developed from an improbable laboratory exercise to a major therapeutic success. The surgical problems of organ grafting have, for the most part, been solved. Rejection of grafts is now partially understood and usually controllable by powerful immunosuppressive drugs. A steady improvement in patient outcome, especially following the introduction o...

The case history is described of a young woman who presented with primary pulmonary hypertension and non-specific inflammatory signs. The patient received prolonged immunosuppressive treatment with low dose methotrexate and prednisone without any vasodilator agent. After one year the pulmonary artery pressure fell from a mean value of 47 mm Hg to 30 mm Hg and there was a corresponding clinical ...

UNLABELLED Acute allograft rejection remains a major complication after liver transplantation. We report a semiquantitative imaging method of detecting acute allograft rejection with (18)F-FDG PET. METHODS Syngeneic and allogeneic transplanted rats, with or without immunosuppressive treatment, were subjected to serial PET. Autoradiography of the liver was conducted in both the syngeneic and t...

Mizoribine (MZB) is an imidazole nucleoside and an immunosuppressive agent. The immunosuppressive effect of MZB has been reported to be due to the inhibition of DNA synthesis in the S phase of the cell cycle. Because of its relative lack of toxicity, during the past decade MZB has been frequently used instead of azathioprine as a component of immunosuppressive drug regimens. MZB is being used t...

The case history is described of a young woman who presented with primary pulmonary hypertension and non-specific inflammatory signs. The patient received prolonged immunosuppressive treatment with low dose methotrexate and prednisone without any vasodilator agent. After one year the pulmonary artery pressure fell from a mean value of 47 mm Hg to 30 mm Hg and there was a corresponding clinical ...

Mitogen-induced transformation and the production of reactive oxidants by mononuclear leucocytes (MNLs) from patients with chronic dermatological disorders were investigated in vitro before and during the administration of the antimycobacterial/immunosuppressive agent clofazimine (200 mg 3 times weekly). Seven patients, 4 with lichen planus and 3 with cutaneous lupus erythematosus, were include...

The new immunosuppressive agent, cyclosporin A, was used with low doses of steroids to treat eight patients undergoing hepatic transplantation and three patients undergoing cadaveric renal transplantation. Seven of the eight liver recipients are well, including one who was given two livers. The three kidney recipients who had developed cytotoxic antibodies after previously rejecting grafts with...

Urticarial vasculitis (UV) is a protean disorder that can be triggered by myriad of causes although it often idiopathic. Treatment successful with corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressive drugs. However, when cause found, specific treatment the underlying problem or removal an offending agent will resolve symptoms. This report describes patient UV thyroid replacement, necessitated Hashimoto's t...

introduction and aims: impact of treatment on progression of fibrosis in autoimmune hepatitis (aih) is unknown. we assessed the changes in liver fibrosis before and after treatment among these patients. materials and methods: nineteen aih patients who had paired liver biopsies were studied. of these, seven had been treated with 6 months of cyclosporine-a and the rest with 6 months of prednisolo...

silybum marianum, is known to have anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective and anticarciogenic effects. the aim of this study was to compare effects of silymarin, rapamycin and fk506 on proliferation and apoptosis of human t cells stimulated with con a. peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmc) were stimulated with concavalin a  ( con a) (5µg/ml) and then treated with different inhibitors (silymari...