title: The effect of HLA-C matching on acute renal transplant rejection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The acute immunological rejection and long time survival of kidney allografts are correlated with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) match status between donor and recipient. HLA-A, -B and -DR have all turned out to be relevant HLA loci in several studies. The role of HLA-C has not been studied before now.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 104 consecutive patient/donor pairs from our transplantation unit, we retrospectively analysed whether acute graft rejection is influenced by HLA-C match status between donor and recipient. For typing HLA-C alleles, we used an allele-specific PCR protocol in combination with serology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By analysing groups of donor/recipient pairs with a homogeneous distribution of HLA-B mismatches in order to exclude an effect of the linkage disequilibrium between HLA-B/C, HLA-C mismatch turned out to be significantly correlated with acute transplant rejection in pairs with one additional mismatch on the B locus (P=0.004). Additional parameters that may hypothetically influence acute rejection episodes (HLA-A or DR mismatch, time of cold and warm ischaemia, previous transplantations, pre-existing HLA antibodies) were also analysed but cannot explain this finding.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HLA-C matching of all kidney donors and recipients seems to be an option to reduce the probability of acute rejection episodes. Further studies of greater patient cohorts analysing organ rejection and organ survival are warranted.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, University of Lübeck School of Medicine, Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Frohn
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fricke
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Puchta
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kirchner
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D002102:Cadaver; D005838:Genotype; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000276:immunology*; D006085:Graft Survival; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D015236:HLA-C Antigens / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012703:Serotyping; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D015236:HLA-C Antigens