1993 Continuing shortages in organ donation lead to renewed interest in transplanting organs from animals such as baboons (often referred to as xenografting). Baboon-to-human liver and heart transplants have been attempted, with limited success. A new research strategy involves developing a line of pigs with the appropriate human genes to help prevent rejection of organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys transplanted from these animals.

1994 The FDA approves a new medication for use in transplant recipients: Prograf (formerly known as FK506) marks a significant advance in the understanding and suppression of the human rejection response and in the lessening of unwanted side effects.

1995 A new study by Dr. Paul Terasaki and colleagues at UCLA shows that spouses are an important source of living-donor kidney transplants. According to the Terasaki study, the 3-year graft survival rate for spouse-to-spouse transplants (85%) is comparable to that seen in parent-to-child transplants (82%) and better than that seen in transplants from cadaver donors (70%). Living donation is becoming an increasingly important source of kidney and other transplants because of continuing shortages of cadaver donors.

Two more new medicines are approved by the FDA for use in transplant recipients. These are: CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil), and Neoral, a new formulation of cyclosporine. These drugs hold promise for providing even better control of rejection with fewer side effects.

At Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Lloyd Ratner, M.D. and Louis Kavoussi, M.D., perform the world's first laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomy in which a patient's kidney is removed through a hole slightly larger than a silver dollar. Laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomies mean fewer post-op days in the hospital, speedier recovery, less scarring and decreased post-operative pain.

1996 The number of kidney transplants using living donors (both related and unrelated) continues to grow. A total of 11,099 kidney transplants were performed in 1996 -- 3,389 of which involved kidneys recovered from living donors

1997 The Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery announces a research breakthrough that raises new hope that acute transplant rejection may be prevented and reversed without the need for chronic immunosuppressant drugs. Navy researchers report that they are now able to prevent kidney transplant rejection in primates with different histocompatibility factors through the use of a combination of a specific fusion protein and a specific monoclonal antibody. Further trials are necessary to determine future applicability of the technique to humans.

* The first transplant of this kind in the US or Canada, with the recipient surviving for one year or more.