To the Readers

Abstract

Transplantation medicine is one of the most complex and challenging fields in medical sciences. It is a relatively young discipline with an impressive rate of growth and geographic expansion. Few areas in medicine are so much intertwined with ethnicity, ethical, religious and jurisdictionalfactors as organ transplantation. We are confident that experiences gained in this part of the world will constitute a valuable cache in furthering this burgeoning field.It is our firm conviction that scientific exchange is the most influential factor in the growth of human knowledge. We therefore feel invoked to create our own forum for presentation of experienceas a means of contribution to human knowledge. The rapid pace of proliferation of transplantation in this part of the world warrants establishing of local journals to serve this purpose. The International Journal of Organ TransplantationMedicine aims at forming a means through which national and international scientists and clinicians to contribute to the developmentof the discipline.Chimerical figures in the mythology of these areas are witness to the interest of its people and have permeated in the traditional beliefs for millennia by the idea of mixing human body and powerful animals, the most famous of which is represented in the Sphinx of Egypt and the winged bull in Persepolis.With decades of productive experience at the centers of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, and the major conglomerate of transplantation clinics of Avicenna, we are confident that we can render our due share in promoting this exciting branch of medicine