Analysis of independent microarray datasets of renal biopsies identifies a robust transcript signature of acute allograft rejection.
Transcriptomics could contribute significantly to the early and specific diagnosis of rejection episodes by defining 'molecular Banff' signatures. Recently, the description of pathogenesis-based transcript sets offered a new opportunity for objective and quantitative diagnosis. Generating high-quality transcript panels is thus critical to define high-performance diagnostic classifier. In this study, a comparative analysis was performed across four different microarray datasets of heterogeneous sample collections from two published clinical datasets and two own datasets including biopsies for clinical indication, and samples from nonhuman primates. We characterized a common transcriptional profile of 70 genes, defined as acute rejection transcript set (ARTS). ARTS expression is significantly up-regulated in all AR samples as compared with stable allografts or healthy kidneys, and strongly correlates with the severity of Banff AR types. Similarly, ARTS were tested as a classifier in a large collection of 143 independent biopsies recently published by the University of Alberta. Results demonstrate that the 'in silico' approach applied in this study is able to identify a robust and reliable molecular signature for AR, supporting a specific and sensitive molecular diagnostic approach for renal transplant monitoring.
Saint-Mezard
Pierre
P
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland.
Berthier
Céline C
CC
Zhang
Hai
H
Hertig
Alexandre
A
Kaiser
Sergio
S
Schumacher
Martin
M
Wieczorek
Grazyna
G
Bigaud
Marc
M
Kehren
Jeanne
J
Rondeau
Eric
E
Raulf
Friedrich
F
Marti
Hans-Peter
HP
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D055815:Young Adult