title: Serum antibodies to heat shock proteins are of no diagnostic value for human kidney allograft rejection.
abstract: Because of the prevailing evidence that heat shock proteins (hsp) are involved in transplantation immunology, we investigate in this study the serum levels of anti-hsp60, and anti-hsp70 antibodies in human kidney allograft recipients. We analyzed 67 sera from 20 patients immediately before and 2 weeks after receiving a kidney allograft, and from 27 healthy age-matched controls with an ELISA. Eleven kidneys had normal allograft function, six had a mild rejection episode, all of which could be reversed successfully; three kidneys had to be removed later on because of resistant rejection. Hsp antibody frequency and titres were the same for transplant recipients and for healthy controls. In patients receiving a kidney allograft, no difference in the level of hsp-antibodies before and after transplantation was observed. Additionally, anti-hsp60 and anti-hsp70 antibody titres were found to be independent of the clinical course. These data suggest that the determination of anti-hsp60 and 70 antibody titers are of no diagnostic value for renal allograft rejection.
authors.affiliation: Department for Transplant Surgery, University Hospital Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Trieb
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gerth
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Margreiter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D018834:Chaperonin 60 / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D015415:Biomarkers; D018834:Chaperonin 60; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins