Immunology of renal transplantation in Singapore.

Renal transplantation is the best form of renal replacement therapy for patients suffering from endstage renal failure. While correcting the metabolic consequences of uremia, it is the only form of replacement therapy which permits full rehabilitation of the patient. However, the successful engraftment of a renal allograft is frequently limited by immunologically mediated graft loss which can be as high as 50% in the first year in cadaveric transplants. Since the beginning of the history of transplantation, various methods of modifying allograft rejection, both pretransplantation and posttransplantation have been studied. In this paper, we report the pretransplantation immunological factors that appear to modulate graft survival in renal transplantation in Singapore.