Organ transplant

An organ transplant is the transplantation of a whole or partial organ from one body to another, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or failing organ with a working one from the donor. Organ donors can be living, or deceased (previously referred to as cadaveric).

Types of Transplant

Autograft

A transplant of tissue from one to oneself. Sometimes this is done with surplus tissue, or tissue that can regenerate, or tissues more desperately needed elsewhere (examples include skin grafts, vein extraction for CABG, etc.) Sometimes this is done to remove the tissue and then treat it or the person, before returning it (examples include stem-cell autograft and storing blood in advance of surgery.)

Related Topics:
Skin graft - Vein extraction - Blood - Surgery

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Allograft

An allograft is a transplanted organ or tissue from a genetically non-identical member of the same species. Most human tissue and organ transplants are allografts.

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Isograft

A subset of allografts in which organs or tissues are transplanted from one to a genetically identical other (such as an identical twin). This is differentiated because it is anatomically identical to an allograft, but closer to autograft in terms of immunology.

Related Topics:
Identical twin - Immunology

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Xenograft

A transplant of organs or tissue from one species to another. Examples include porcine heart valves, which are quite common and successful, a baboon-to-human heart (failed), and piscine-primate (fish to non-human primate) islet, the latter's research study directed for potential human use if successful.

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