Mathé deduced that this wasting disease was caused by immune response in the donor marrow attacking the body of the transplanted patients. The guest was attacking the host. This response is the consequence of an ancient system for maintaining the sovereignty of organisms (and rejecting invading cells)—except in bone marrow transplants, the direction of sovereignty is reversed. Like a mutinous crew forced onto an unfamiliar ship, the donor’s immune cells recognize the body around them as foreign and attack it. The other (that is, previously the graft) becomes the self, and the self, ipso facto,
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