Transplant tolerance: bench to bedside--26th annual Samuel Jason Mixter Lecture.

Ever since the first demonstration that transplant tolerance can be induced in neonatal mice by injection of donor bone marrow cells shortly after birth, the establishment of tolerance for organ transplants has been a major goal in the field of transplantation immunology. Indeed, an understanding of tolerance has both theoretical and practical implications for transplantation: from a theoretical point of view, an understanding of tolerance is basic to the requirement for self-/nonself-discrimination in the immune system; from a practical point of view, the induction of tolerance could relieve patients from the need for long-term immunosuppressant medications, thereby avoiding the adverse effects and complications that are a major limitation to the success of clinical transplant at present.