GC: n
S: NCBI – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26862821 (last access: 12 February 2016); Biomed – http://biomed.brown.edu/Courses/BI108/BI108_2004_Groups/Group04/Rejection_overview.htm (last access: 12 February 2016).
N: 1. “shoot inserted into another plant,” late 15c. alteration of Middle English graff (late 14c.), from Old French graife “grafting knife, carving tool; stylus, pen,” from Latin graphium “stylus,” from Greek grapheion “stylus,” from graphein “to write” (see -graphy). So called probably on resemblance of a stylus to the pencil-shaped shoots used in grafting. The terminal -t- in the English word is not explained. Surgical sense is from 1871.
2. Graft: Healthy skin, bone, kidney, liver, or other tissue that is taken from one part of the body to replace diseased or injured tissue removed from another part of the body. For example, skin grafts can be used to cover areas of skin that have been burned.
3. Transplant, also called graft, in medicine, a section of tissue or a complete organ that is removed from its original natural site and transferred to a new position in the same person or in a separate individual. The term, like the synonym graft, was borrowed by surgeons from horticulture. Both words imply that success will result in a healthy and flourishing graft or transplant, which will gain its nourishment from its new environment.
4. Transplants of animal tissue have figured prominently in mythology since the legend of the creation of Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. Historical accounts of surgical tissue grafting as part of the cure of patients date back to the early Hindu surgeons who, about the beginning of the 6th century bc, developed techniques for reconstructing noses from skin flaps taken from the patient’s arm. This method was introduced into Western medicine by the great Italian surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi in the 16th century. The flap was left attached to the arm for two to three weeks until new blood vessels had grown into it from the nose remnant. The flap was then severed and the arm freed from the reconstructed nose.
5. Although some authors restrict the use of the term “graft” to same species tissue and cell transfer, the usage of this term has broaden to include organs and interspecies transfer, and is therefore often considered as being synonymous to “transplant”.
6. Nowadays, “transplantation” and “grafting” are used as synonyms. To some authors, “grafting” refers to a transfer of tissue or organ from one place to another in or on a person’s body (intraindividual), whereas “transplantation” refers to this movement from one individual to another (interindividual). However, all agree to say that both terms are used interchangeably.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=graft (last access: 12 February 2016). 2. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=3627 (last access: 12 February 2016). 3 & 4. EncBrit – http://www.britannica.com/topic/transplant-surgery (last access: 12 February 2016). 5 & 6. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 12 February 2016).
SYN: grafting, transplantation, transplant. (depending on context)
S: TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 12 February 2016); GDT (last access: 12 February 2016).
