A SERVICE OF

EDITOR: Paul Kuo, MD

• Studies Show Less Need for Steroids After Transplantation
• Study: A Year Later, Renal Function is Better in Patients on Rapamune
• Low Rejection Rates Reported in Daclizumab Studies
• First Australian Pig Cloned
• Progress Reported on Artificial Lungs, Livers
• New UNOS Officers and Board Members Are Elected

• Government Launches Broad Donor Initiative
• Number of Transplants Grows 5.4% in One Year
• Living Kidney Donations Increase in Canada
• Donor Screening Important in Live Liver Donation
• Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Used to Generate Insulin-Expressing Cells
• Willingness to Donate Almost Doubles in Three Years in New Jersey

• Urine Tests Diagnose Acute Kidney Rejection Noninvasively
• Medicare Begins Covering Intestinal Transplants
• PPL Therapeutics Reports Birth of First Transgenic Cloned Piglets
• Journal Briefs: Liver Transplantation
• U.S. Hand Recipients to Ignite Fireworks Displays
• Youngest Heart-Lung Recipient Dies 16 Years Later
• Chronimed to Acquire SangStat's Transplant Pharmacy

• Lung Transplanted From Dead Donor
• Infant Heart Transplants Successful with Mismatched Blood Types
• UNOS Seeking Public Comment on Proposals
• Regulatory News: Wyeth-Ayerst, Schering-Plough, Abiomed
• Novel Bone Marrow Procedure Described for Chronic Granulomatous Disease
• Mother Receives Organs from Son and Daughter

• Study: "Preemptive" Kidney Transplantation Associated with Longer Allograft Survival
• House Bill Would Cover Travel Expenses for Some Living Donors
• Legislation Would Create Internet-Based Organ-Matching Registry
• National Organ Waiting List Tops 75,000
• New Hand Recipient Continues to Gain Function
• LionHeart Fully Implantable LVAS System Implanted in First U.S. Patient

• Doctors Perform Second U.S. Hand Transplant
• Dolly Scientists Convert Skin Cells to Heart Cells; Nobel Laureates Urge Bush to Fund Stem Cell Research
• Demand for Organs Outpaces the Supply
• Thoratec Plans to Test Implantable VAD; Patient Discharged with Portable VAD Driver
• Journal Briefs: Methadone in Liver Patients; Expectations of Stem Cell Transplant Patients; A Genetic Mutation in Interstitial Lung Disease
• UPMC Marks 20th Anniversary of its First Liver Transplant

• King Faisal Foundation Honors Three Transplant Pioneers
• First Transplanted Hand is Amputated
• Positive Crossmatch Transplants Offer Hope of Transplantation for Kidney Patients
• Business Briefs: Transplant Drugs a Focus of Pharmacy; Thoratec, Thermo Cardiosystems Complete Merger
• New HHS Secretary Plans Organ Donation Effort
• FDA Approves IDE for Implantable Left Ventricular Assist System

• Report: OPOs Vary Greatly in Approaches to Procuring Organs
• FDA Wants to Make Xenotransplantation Trial Information Public
• Abiomed to Test Implantable Artificial Heart in Five Patients
• FDA Approves Peg-Intron for Chronic Hepatitis C, Cancidas for Aspergillosis
• Hand Recipient Passes Two-Year Mark with Flying Colors
• Regulation Requires Registration of Tissue-Based Products

• HHS Appoints Transplantation Advisory Committee Members
• New Reports and Proposed Regulations Delve Into Tissue-Based Products
• FDA Advisory Committee OKs Antifungal
• Five U.S. Research Teams Receive Roche Grants
• VAD News: Mergers, a Milestone, and a Clinical Trial
• Journal Briefs

• New Cells Said to Pick Up Where Embryonic Stem Cells Leave Off
• Group: Delay Xenotransplantation Trials in Humans
• Medicare to Provide Lifetime Drug Coverage to Some Transplant Recipients
• Abiomed Wants to Test Implantable Replacement Heart in Humans
• Third-Generation Heart Resynchronization Device Under Study
• Journal Briefs
• Merger of VAD Companies Clears Antitrust Review

• Group Reaches Consensus on Living Organ Donors
• In Ohio, No Need for Relatives to Agree to Organ Donation
• Two Studies Show Advantages of Peginterferon Over Standard Interferon
• BioTransplant Continues MGH Collaboration; Acquires Eligix
• Third-Generation Heart Resynchronization Device Under Study
• News Briefs
• AST and HHS Create Public Service Announcement on Organ Donation

• Teenage Girl Has First Pediatric Cardiac Autotransplant
• In Hope for Huntington's Disease, Neurons Transplanted; Mom Gives Nerves to Baby
• Bone Marrow Cells Become Neurons in Mice
• Studies Explore Racial Discrepancies in Kidney Transplantation
• Group Sues FDA for Information on Xenotransplantation Trials
• UNOS and OPTN Send New Liver Proposal to HHS

• UPMC Plans Study to Predict Transplant Tolerance
• Dual Waiting List Could Increase the Number of Elderly Heart Recipients
• ISAtx247 Promising in First Phase of Trial
• Rare Autotransplant of Heart is Performed in Texas
• Thoratec, Thermo Cardiosystems Plan Merger
• Journal Briefs: Cadaver Pancreas/Living Kidney Transplants for Diabetic Patients; Use of OKT3 to Avoid Transplantation
• Southern Florida Gets New Kidney Transplant Program

• PLAS+SD Use and Liver Transplant Deaths Could be Linked
• Ovarian Function Restored Following Transplants in Monkeys
• Repligen to Start Phase II Study of CTLA4-Ig
• SangStat to Focus Beyond Transplantation Markets
• UNOS Board to Vote on Liver Plan
• Hand and Arm Transplants: Progress Reports

• Simulect Associated with Hypersensitivity Reactions
• Medicare to Cover Intestinal Transplants
• With National Sharing, More Matched Kidneys and Better Results
• Journal Briefs: Black Children Wait-Listed Less for Kidneys; Laparoscopic Nephrectomy Increases Donations
• HHS Creates Advisory Committee to Review Allocation Policies
• Under New Federal Contract, UNOS Will Still Run OPTN

• Skeletal Muscle Transplanted Into Patient's Heart
• Transplant Procedure Takes the Live Donor's Right Liver
• BioTransplant and Novartis Creating a Xenotransplantation Company
• Program Tracks Health Status of Live Kidney Donors
• California Organ Donations Fall 13%
• Transplant Surgeons Foresee Xenografts and Artificial Hearts Within a Decade
• Husbands Less Likely to Give Kidneys; Whites More Likely to Get Pancreas-Kidney Transplants

• NASA Collaboration Focuses on Biotechnology Research
• Organ Donations Up 4% in the First Half of 2000
• Heart Patients Needed for REMATCH Trial
• Jarvik 2000 LVAD Implanted on a Permanent Basis
• Study: Heart Transplants Help Sickest Patients Most
• UNOS Data Include Survival Rates Based on Age
• Infertility Group Urges Couples to Donate Embryos for Stem Cell Research

• Xenotransplantation: Two Teams Clone Pigs; Pig Virus Reported in Mice
• NIH Guidelines OK Stem Cell Research in Embryos
• Survival Improving for Canadian Transplant Patients
• Research Briefs from Transplantation Congress
• UNOS to Host Forum on Liver Allocation Policy
• Regulatory News: Rapamune, Simulect, Thymoglobulin

• Geron Cuts Roslin's Xenotransplantation Funding
• UNOS Proposes Liver Plan
• HCFA Halves Time for Medicare Approval for Transplant Centers
• CellCept's Indications Now Will Cover Liver Rejection
• One Lot of Thymoglobulin Recalled; Novartis Announces Program for Switching Cyclosporines
• NEJM Addresses Strategies for Increasing the Donor Pool

• UNOS, Mexico Agree to Share Transplant Information
• Enrollment Underway to Study Edmonton Protocol
• Two Groups Find Gene for Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
• First Recipient of the Jarvik 2000 LVAD Gets a New Heart
• Journal Briefs: Troponin I Levels; Natural History of HCV
• Transplant Milestones Reported: A First and a 100th

• SangCya Recalled; Absorption Reduced with Apple Juice
• Ten Centers Chosen to Test the Edmonton Protocol
• Synthesized Scorpion Venom May Have Immunosuppressive Uses
• Bioengineered Corneas Restore Vision in First Human Trials
• Heart Transplantation: Pump Use in a Child; Keeping the Right Ventricle
• UNOS Publishes New Membership Directory

• Cord Blood Transplants Fare Better than Bone Marrow Transplants
• Adult-to-Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation Judged Safe
• University of Pittsburgh to Test Liver Assist Device
• Children Given Preference for Livers from Pediatric Donors
• Gene Targeting a Success in Sheep
• Studies Focus on Indicators of Heart Disease

• Government Revises Xenotransplantation Guideline
• BMA Launches Campaign, Publishes Paper on Transplantation
• Islet Cell Transplants Spur Enthusiasm; NEJM Releases Findings Early
• Journal Briefs
• Newspaper Explores Hope, Ethics Associated with Hand Transplants
• In the News: UNOS Competition; Transplants in HIV Patients

• $10 Million Study Focuses on Growing a Human Heart Ventricle
• Continuous Donor Registration Drive is Launched
• ASTS Creates Registry to Track Live Donor Livers
• Islet Cells Render Diabetic Patients Insulin-Free
• Graft Survival Examined with Various Immunosuppressive Drugs
• Journal Briefs
• FDA OKs Gengraf, a Capsule Form of Cyclosporine
• Hepatitis C Drug Approvals; Tests Available to Public

• Domino Liver Transplants in the News
• Pittsburgh Centers to Look for Cure for Type 1 Diabetes
• General Motors to Launch $1 Million Donor Drive
• Bile Duct Cancer Treatment Reported by Mayo Researchers
• Journal Briefs: Detecting Events After Transplantation
• UNOS Enhances Website with Professional Services Section

• UNOS Compares 1998 and 1999 Transplant Data
• Virginia OPOs Merge
• Transplanted Hand Reportedly Facing Rejection
• Cloned Cows Avoid Early Aging
• Journal Briefs: Survival for Diabetic Transplant Recipients; Diagnosing Cardiomyopathy
• Regulatory News: Trials for ISAtx247; Diabetes Drug OKd
• Business News from Eon Labs, SangStat, Thoratec

• Organ Allocation Wrangling Continues
• Groups React to Legislative Maneuvers on Allocation Issues
• Laparoscopy Credited With Increased Kidney Donations
• Beth Israel Deaconess Plans to Begin Liver Transplants
• UNOS Technology Recognized by the Smithsonian
• SangCya OKd in Germany

• Pigs Cloned in a Step Toward Xenotransplantation
• HHS Rules Final at Last
• Company to Use Liver Cells from Non-Heart-Beating Donors
• Rezulin Withdrawn From Market Amid Reports of Liver Damage
• Journal Briefs: Live Liver Donation; Growth Hormone; An Experimental Therapy
• Two companies recently announced steps they have taken toward the development of new immunosuppressive drugs

• Kidney Transplantation: Survival Steadily Increasing
• Journal Briefs: Daclizumab in Heart Transplantation; Hyperammonemia in Lung Transplantation
• UNOS Reports Growth in Numbers of Living Organ Donors, Minority Transplants
• UNOS Board OKs Liver Policy for Submission to HHS
• Medscape Launches Transplantation Website
• Donor Organs at a Record High for New Jersey Network
• Groups Promote Kidney Disease Awareness

• Racism Charge Leads to Overhaul of British Transplant System
• UNOS Proposes Liver Distribution Policy
• Opposition to Allocation Rules Continues
• Liver Disease Alleviated in Rodents: Two Studies
• VAD Implanted with Minimally Invasive Surgery
• VA Begins Study of Hepatitis C in Veterans

• Cyclosporine and St. John's Wort: A Bad Mix
• Combined Liver and Bone Marrow Transplant Reported
• Regulatory News
• Double-Arm Transplant Recipient Reports Sensation
• Marrow Program Facilitates Stem Cell Transplant
• Business Briefs

• In a World First, Patient Gets Two New Hands and Forearms
• Hand and Larynx Recipients Continue To Do Well on Transplant Anniversaries
• UNOS Receives Its Largest-Ever Grant: $1 Million
• Domino Liver Transplants: Firsts Reported
• Theseus Announces Milestone
• Drug Briefs: Isotechnika and SciClone Plan Studies

• Lower Mortality Rates Reported in High-Volume Liver Centers
• New Coalition Supports National Organ Transplant Act Reauthorization
• Journal Briefs
• Drug News: Hepatitis B and C
• Company Seeks OK for Tablet Form of Rapamune
• Philadelphia Area Continues to Lead Nation in Organ Donations
• Girl Given a Stranger's Lung Lobe Dies

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