Minor Histocompatibility Antigens: From the Laboratory to the Clinic

With the widespread application of solid tissue and bone marrow transplantation as a treatment for an array of life threatening disorders, there is a pressing need for clinicians and experimentalists to understand the basis of immunological rejection of tissue transplants. While much previous work focuses on characterization of antigens encoded by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in this process, the many histocompatibility (H) antigens encoded outside of the MHC, the so-called minor H antigens, have only recently been identified at the molecular level. This easily readable but comprehensive text is the first to put together insightful historic perspectives with up-to-date advances in the molecular genetics, biochemistry and immunobiology of minor H antigens from both experimental and clinical points of view. In doing so it provides a sourcebook particularly suited for clinicians and experimental immunologists engaged in tissue transplantation.