Purpose of reviewThe question addressed in the title of this paper iscontroversial because of the lack of clear data and conflicts due to the paucity of existing data. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to summarize some of the relevant clinical and experimental findings.Recent findingsIt has recently been suggested by a retrospective analysis of the United States Renal Data System data that mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) therapy is associated with a significant decrease in the relative risk of chronic allograft failure. Chronic allograft failure, however, may differ from a biopsy-proven chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN). MMF has been shown to inhibit antibody formation in animal models, and alloantibody does correlate with development of chronic allograft injury. Hence, there is compelling rationale to expect MMF therapy to decrease the incidence of chronic rejection of allografts in humans. Nevertheless, current data are only provocative and suggest a need for further direct study of this important question.SummaryIn summary, it is unclear at this time whether MMF has a direct salutary or deleterious effect on CAN in human renal transplantation.