title: Evidence for the immunosuppressive potential of calcineurin inhibitor-sparing regimens in liver transplant recipients with impaired renal function.
abstract: Patients requiring liver transplantation (LT) frequently experience renal insufficiency (RI), which affects their survival. Although calcineurin inhibitor-sparing immunosuppressive regimens (CSRs) are well known to prevent RI, the immune state in recipients receiving CSR remains to be intensively investigated. Among 60 cases of living-donor LT at our institute, 68% of the patients had none to mild RI (non-RI group) and 32% of the patients had moderate to severe RI (RI group). The RI group received a CSR comprising reduced dose of tacrolimus, methylprednisolone, and mycophenolate mofetil, while the non-RI group received a regimen comprising conventional dose of tacrolimus and methylprednisolone. One year after LT, the mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the RI group had significantly improved, although it was still lower than that of the non-RI group. Serial mixed lymphocyte reaction assays revealed that antidonor T-cell responses were adequately suppressed in both groups. Thus, we provide evidence that CSR leads to improvement of eGFR after LT in patients with RI, while maintaining an appropriate immunosuppressive state.
authors.affiliation: Division of Frontier Medical Science, Department of Surgery, Programs for Biomedical Research, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan.
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ide
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Onoe
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Banshodani
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tazawa
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Igarashi
authors.forename: Nabin Bahadur
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Basnet
authors.forename: Marlen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doskali
authors.forename: Hirotaka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tashiro
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohdan