Arrqic.iul Organ.\ 20(8):822, Blackwcll Science, Inc., Boston 0: 1996 International Society for Artificial Organs

Joint Meeting of the Organs and the World

Guest Editorial

International Faculty of Artificial Artificial Organ, Immunology, and

Transplantation Symposium The joint meeting of the International Faculty of

Artificial Organs (INFA) and the World Artificial Organ, Immunology and Transplantation Sympo- sium (WAITS) was held in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Ja- pan, July 19-22, 1995. As one of the founding mem- bers of INFA, the Sapporo Medical University had been appointed to organize the symposium. The main title of the meeting was “lmmunomodulation in Immune Disorders and Organ Substitution,” di- vided into three sessions, Immunomodulation of Organ Transplantation, Extracorporeal Immuno- modulation and Material Interaction, and Current Status and Perspective of Organ Substitution. A distinguished international panel of approximately 70 speakers, including INFA professors Drs. Klink- mann, von Sengbusch, Nose, and Tanaka, gave ex- cellent seminars, and young investigators gave 4 1 poster presentations. Recent advances from basic experiments to clinical applications were reported. The merits and disadvantages of new reagents and technology were hotly discussed.

In this special August issue of Artificial Organs, we collected articles presented at the meeting; top- ics include the most recent advances in transplan- tation, immunology, immunomodulation, organ substitution, and artificial organs. Papers are di- vided into three major topics. In the first section, “Immunomodulation of Organ Transplantation,”

Address correspondence to Dr. Kokichi Kikuchi, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Sapporo Medical University, South 1 West 17, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060, Japan.

basic problems in transplantation biology and the reagents to modulate the host immune system are discussed. In the second section, “Extracorporeal Immunomodulation and Material Interaction,” the invention of a number of technologies and their ap- plications to patients are presented. In the special October issue that will follow, the third section, “Current Status and Perspective of Organ Substi- tution,” studies on transplantation of liver, heart, and bone marrow will be presented.

We hope that these INFA-WAITS special issues provide a contemporary overview of organ trans- plantation and artificial organs as well as an immu- nological basis of understanding the principles and problems underlying this rapidly expanding field.

Kokichi Kikuchi, M.D., Ph.D. Professor and Chairman of Sapporo INFA Meeting

DepartmPnt o j Pathology Sapporo Medical University

Supporo, Japan

Akio Nishimura, M.D., Ph.D. Chairman of Sapporo I N F A Meeting

Director, Muroran Nikko Hospital Japan

Sakuzo Komatsu, M.D., Ph.D. Chairman qf WAITS

Professor, Department of Thoracic S u r g e p Sapporo Medical University

Sapporo, Japan

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