title: Alloantibodies in heart transplantation.
abstract: The presence of complement fixing anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies in the circulation of organ transplant recipients may result in heart allograft rejection. Here, we assessed the clinical impact of pre- and post-transplantation allosensitization on long-term survival of heart allografts. Sequential samples of sera from heart allograft recipients were screened pretransplantation for panel reactive antibodies using the complement-dependent cytotoxicity test. Patients were monitored post-transplantation for donor specific anti-HLA class I and class II antibodies. Kaplan-Meier graft survival plots were generated to analyze the effect of anti-HLA antibodies on transplantation outcomes. Statistical analysis showed that the post-transplantation development of alloantibodies was a significant risk factor that was associated with low long-term survival rates; in contrast, recipients' gender, age, previous transplantations, and degree of HLA matching with the donor had no effect on long-term survival. The presence in pretransplantation sera of antibodies against more than 10% of the HLA reference panel (PRA >10%) was associated with AMR and with a relatively lower rate of graft survival after 1 year but did not affect 10-year survival. The present data underline the importance of monitoring the development of anti-HLA antibodies as a tool for early diagnosis and treatment of AMR.
authors: Department of Pathology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
authors: Eric K
authors: EK
authors: Ho
authors: George
authors: G
authors: Vlad
authors: Adriana I
authors: AI
authors: Colovai
authors: E Rodica
authors: ER
authors: Vasilescu
authors: Joseph
authors: J
authors: Schwartz
authors: Hugo
authors: H
authors: Sondermeijer
authors: Elizabeth
authors: E
authors: Burke
authors: Charles C
authors: CC
authors: Marboe
authors: Silviu
authors: S
authors: Itescu
authors: Nicole
authors: N
authors: Suciu-Foca
authors: Donna
authors: D
authors: Mancini
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000276:immunology; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D007518:Isoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015166:Monitoring, Immunologic
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D007518:Isoantibodies