Recent advances in histocompatibility testing have contributed to improved organ transplantation outcomes: advances in HLA typing technology have enabled nearly complete determination of alleles and imaging of three-dimensional structures based on amino acid sequences of HLA antigens. Furthermore, the fluorescent bead method using Luminex has become the mainstream for HLA antibody testing, and detection of specificity for HLA alleles has been realized. These advances have given rise to the method of epitope analysis. Although HLA allele mismatch was conventionally used in the risk assessment of organ transplantation, many studies in Japan and overseas have reported that more detailed assessment is now possible using epitope analysis. However, epitope analysis is still not routinely performed in clinical practice. The reasons for this include a lack of knowledge about epitopes, the complexity of analysis methods, and a lack of uniformity in methods. However, having a basic knowledge of analysis methods may be of help when there is a doubt about the interpretation of antibody test results. The content of this paper is intended to encourage a routine introduction to epitope analysis. Therefore, the technical content will be limited to a description of only basic knowledge, and will be outlined mainly in the form of case descriptions.

Ethics has been known as "morality" or "the way of humanity". It is something that is ingrained in our bodies as we live our lives and is so commonplace that it is rarely described. "Law" involves coercion by society to maintain social order, whereas "ethics" regulates as an inner will belonging to the individual. Since it is impossible to establish all the rules of society by law, "minimum norms" that must be observed by all means are established as laws.

In the West, medical ethics follows the ideas of the Hippocratic school of ancient Greece, while in the East, "medicine is a benevolent art" has been traditionally held to have built a relationship of trust between medical professionals and the people who receive medical care for a long time.

Behind the rapid progress of science since the mid-20th century, inhumane acts committed by the Nazis during World War II, as revealed at the Nuremberg Trials, and in 1964, the Declaration of Helsinki was adopted to protect the rights of human subjects in medical research, asserting the public’s right to receive medical care. The importance of medical ethics, in which informed consent is indispensable, was endorsed in many countries. Assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization, prenatal testing, and preimplantation testing have brought about discussions on bioethics. Organ transplantation, end-of-life care, and palliative medicine have naturally required high ethical standards from individuals, and the importance of ethics in these areas has been recognized by various professions.

And in the "World Declaration on Use of Science and Scientific Knowledge" of the 1999 Budapest World Science Congress, it was stated that all scientists should hold themselves to high ethical standards for science in society and for science for society. The "Ethical Guidelines for Physicians" issued by the Japan Medical Association in April 2022 also states that medicine is not only the practice of medicine, but also requires social awareness. This "sociality" has been at the root of medicine from BC to the present, and also in transplantation.

Since 2019, Terminology Subcommittee, Committee for Education of Beginners, the Japanese Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (JSHI) has compiled a glossary (introductory edition) in parallel with holding lectures for beginners. The glossary (introductory edition) is a collection of terms (including abbreviations) that beginners who are engaged in HLA typing may have questions when they work or may review their knowledge. The Terminology Subcommittee offers the glossary for beginners who may be confused by unfamiliar technical terms in daily works or who would like to confirm the meaning of a term. Until now, it has been updated once a year in conjunction with the workshops for beginners. Number of terms was 24 in the first edition in 2019 becomes 78 terms in the latest edition (2023). The latest version (Ver.1.4) is shown below.