funkytown

zyncod - thank you very much for your informative answers. j_p - stem cells aren't so much part of my life as part of my Ph.D. studies at the moment! As is kidney transplantation. And I can't find the answers to my questions on Google.

A couple of HLA related questions: 1. Why is HLA matching not so important in kidney transplantation, but critically important in stem cell transplantation? 2. Kidney transplant tissue typing refers to the HLA-DR antigen whereas stem cell transplant tissue typing refers to the HLA-DRB1 antigen. Is there any difference between "DR" and "DRB1"? Cheers!