The Freemartin Cattle and Clinical Transplantation: From the Ancients to Modern Day

Abstract

This historical retrospective explores the study of the freemartin condition and its impact on the discovery of immunologic tolerance and the field of transplant surgery-from the ancient Romans, to early modern anatomists Valsalva, Scarpa, and Hunter, to contemporary immunologists Owen, Medawar, and Billingham, and to legendary transplant surgeon Joseph Murray. The legacy of freemartin cattle in the understanding of acquired tolerance and transplant immunology represents generations of scientific inquiry guided by careful observation and occasional serendipity, and the present-day immunologists and surgeons exploring immune transplant tolerance owe much to the history of the freemartin, several millennia in the making.