The Innate Immune System: Its Rediscovery before Toll Was Described

In 1994, in a prospective control trial in cyclosporine-treated, kidney transplant patients, we observed that treatment of a non-specific allograft injury (postischemic reperfusion injury) leads to a significant reduction in the incidence of both specific alloimmune-mediated allograft rejection and chronic allograft failure. From these convincing clinical data, we concluded in terms of an 'argumentum e contrario': it is the tissue injury that induces immunity. As from where we stand today in innate immunity research, these early clinical observations can be regarded as the discovery of the existence of a human innate immune system activated by tissue injury and preceding adaptive immunity. Copyright (C) 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel