HALF A CENTURY OF DEBT: SIME VLAHOVIC (1932­1977) AND IMMUNOLOGICAL PREPARATION OF THE FIRST KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION IN CROATIA / POLUSTOLJETNI DUG: SIME VLAHOVIC (1932. ­ 1977.) I IMUNOLOSKA PRIPREMA PRVE TRANSPLANTACIJE BUBREGA U HRVATSKOJ

ABSTRACT

Despite some earlier significant discoveries and widespread vaccination successful practices, the history of understanding immunological mechanisms is actually relatively short and associated only with the second half of the 20th century when, among other things, the laws of activation of these mechanisms are crucial for transplantation medicine. Among the first experts in Croatia who turned to these topics was Sime Vlahovic. Born in Split, he graduated and received his PhD in Zagreb. He worked on the problems of transplant immunology from 1963 to 1965 at the eminent centers in the United States. He was the head of the Rijeka Department of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine from 1965 to 1977, since 1976 as a full professor. He was the winner of the Ruder Boskovic award and many others, but his crucial contribution to the medical heritage of Rijeka and Croatia is certainly less known. Based on family archives and memories, this work will attempt to at least partially correct that gap. Thanks to the immunological preparation of Sime Vlahovic, as well as, of course, a large team led by surgeon Vinko Franciskovic, in January 1971, the first kidney transplant was performed in Croatia from a living relative (mother to son), a year later from a cadaver, and in the decades following that, an experimental liver and pancreas transplant program has been developed in Rijeka. Today, we can only speculate about the intriguing directions of the development of the Rijeka Transplant and Immunology School, which would have been led by Sime Vlahovic, had he not passed away at the age of less than 45.