Body Organization
Read the passage and study the illustration. Then use a separate sheet of paper to
answer the questions that follow.
liver
Organ and Tissue Transplants
When a doctor performs a transplant operation, he or she replaces a diseased or damaged organ or
tissue. Sometimes a tissue is moved from one place to another on the same person. This procedure is
called an autograft (Auto-means "self." and -graft means "transplant) A burn victim may have an
autograft in which a section of his or her healthy skin is transplanted to cover the burn
Sometimes a person receives an organ or tissue from another
person This is called an allograft (Allo-means "different.") An
cornea
middle ear
example of an allograft is the transplantation of a kidney from the
body of one person into that of another person. One problem with
lung
heart
allografts is rejection Rejection occurs when the patient's body
blood
recognizes the transplanted organ or tissues as foreign, similar to the
pancreas
way in which a mother cat recognizes a kitten from another litter
bone
as not belonging to her. Rejection is a serious problem because the
kidney
body begins to attack the transplanted organ or tissue. One way of
preventing rejection is by giving the patient certain drugs.
skin
intestine
Transplants are performed to save a patient's life or to correct a
cartilage
veins
serious medical condition. For example, a person with severe liver
disease might need a new liver in order to survive Transplanting a tendon
part of the eye called the cornea can help some blind people to see
The illustration shows some of the many organs and tissues that
doctors can transplant
1. Autografts are never rejected. Why do you think this is true?
h indertere try to use autografts rather than allografts
small