title: One-year follow-up of kidney transplant recipients with increased expression of mRNA for granzyme B in urinary cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Measurement of mRNA encoding cytotoxic proteins in urinary cells is recognized as a potential noninvasive means to diagnose acute rejection in kidney allograft recipients. We sought to evaluate kidney graft function after 1 year follow-up without therapeutic intervention among patients with increased urinary expression of mRNA for granzyme B, albeit with stable graft function at the time of measurements.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 29 randomly selected patients were at a median of 39 months (range, 10-156) after transplantation with stable graft function over the previous 3 months. The reference housekeeping gene GAPDH was used for expression measurement in a TaqMan Gene Expression Assay with the target granzyme B gene. Delta delta ct relative gene expression analysis compared results with reference samples from 10 healthy individuals. Kidney graft function was reassessed after 1 year follow-up; immunosuppression was not changed during this period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  mRNA granzyme B expression was significantly higher among the group of randomly assessed out-clinic patients with stable graft function than among healthy volunteers (mean ± standard error of the mean, 6.18 ± 1.27; P < .01). Despite no therapeutic intervention, no significant changes were observed in delta glomerular filtration rate or quantitative proteinuria between groups with mRNA expression > 5× versus <2× higher than the healthy controls at 1 year of follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased mRNA expression for granzyme B in urinary cells over the medium to long term among kidney transplant recipients did not predict changes in renal allograft function after 1 year follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Transplant Center, University Hospital, Martin, Slovakia. grandtnerova@mfn.sk
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Grandtnerova
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lasabova
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Machalekova
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Janusicova
mesh_terms: D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D053804:Granzymes / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D053804:Granzymes