Early monitoring of lymphocyte subsets in patients with hand allotransplantation

LONG-TERM SURVIVAl of animal limb allografts with combined use of new immunosuppressants and encouraging results of autologous limb replantations led us to clinical application of hand transplantation in human beings. Since the first human hand transplantation on September 23, 1998, in France and the subsequent hand transplantation on January 20, 1999, in the United States, we had performed simultaneously two unilateral hand transplantations on September 21, 1999, in the People’s Republic of China. We measured the lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood of patients with hand transplantation to describe changes in the populations of and to assess the utility of dose adjustment of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) by monitoring the CD3 T-cell count.