title: Nonspecific immunological studies in kidney transplant recipients with and without skin cancer.
abstract: The immunocompetence of the following patient groups was compared using peripheral blood mononuclear cells in a variety of in vitro assays: controls (84); hemodialysis patients (32); kidney transplant recipients without cancer (172), and those with skin cancer (18). The in vitro functions assayed were blastogenic responsiveness to phytohemagglutinin (PHA), concanavalin A (Con A), pokeweed mitogen, allogeneic lymphocytes, and two cocktails of bacterial, viral, and fungal antigens; cytotoxic functions assayed were spontaneous cell-mediated cytotoxicity (SCMC) and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Compared with control subjects, hemodialysis patients showed depressed responsiveness to one antigen cocktail only. Transplant patients with no cancer showed uniformly depressed responsiveness to PHA and allogeneic lymphocytes and reduced SCMC and ADCC activity up to 12 years after transplant; responsiveness in these patients to the two antigen cocktails, after initial depression, recovered by 3 years after transplant to exceed control values. The group of 18 transplant recipients with skin cancer, when compared with transplant recipients with no cancer at a comparable period after transplant, showed similar depression of SCMC and ADCC activity, but significantly greater depression of responsiveness to PHA (P less than 0.01), allogeneic lymphocytes (P less than 0.05), and the 2 antigen cocktails (P less than 0.05).
mesh_terms: D000917:Antibody Formation; D000920:Antibody-Dependent Cell Cytotoxicity; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D006801:Humans; D007121:Immunocompetence; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D006435:Renal Dialysis; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology