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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Transplant.
Sec. Transplantation Immunology
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frtra.2024.1461399
This article is part of the Research Topic Transplantation Pillars View all 6 articles

Walter Brendel and the Dawn of Transplantation Research in Germany

Provisionally accepted
Walter G. Land Walter G. Land *
  • German Academy of Transplantation Medicine, Munich, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Summary: Walter Brendel was a physiologist who headed the Institut of Experimental Surgery at the University of Munich (LMU) from 1961 until 1989. His legendary career began with the development of an anti-human lymphocyte globulin (ALG) at his Institute during the late 1960s. The initial successful treatment of a small number of patients culminated in the co-treatment of the first successfully heart-transplanted patient in Capetown, South Africa (successful reversal with ALG of an acute allograft rejection). Walter Brendel was a pioneering personality whose work has laid a wide platform for the promotion of interdisciplinarily conducted innovative research programs in various domains of translational science and medicine. Among the many innovative achievements, the most notable are: discovery of involvement of the alternative pathway of complement activation in hyperacute xenograft rejection; induction of immunological tolerance to horse IgG as a means to prevent anaphylactic reactions during ALG therapy; development and clinical implementation of the extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy for extracorporeal destruction of renal and ureteral calculi. The legacy of Brendel continues with the foundation of the Walter-Brendel Kolleg für Transplantaionsmedizin ( i.e., the German Transplant School for Transplantation Medicine), which has been held annually since 1994.

    Keywords: antilymphoyte globulin, Heart Transplantation, Xenograft rejection, Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, Injury Hypothesis, of immunological tolerance to horse gammaglobulin

    Received: 08 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Land. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Walter G. Land, German Academy of Transplantation Medicine, Munich, Germany

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