The Immunologic Barriers to Replacing Damaged Organs

The recent years have brought breathtaking advances in the biomedical sciences and biomedical engineering. These advances offer the promise that diseases responsible for most disability and early death may soon be addressed by replacing damaged organs with bio-engineered substitutes. Application of these technologies, however, is impeded by the immune response directed against foreign cells and tissues. Here we consider the potentiality and the limitations of these new technologies and how the technologies might be combined to generate novel approaches to organ replacement that overcome immunological barriers to success.