Antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplant recipients

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the significant problem of humoral, or antibody-mediated rejection, in kidney transplantation. The main cause of antibody-mediated rejection is donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies. Patients with anti-HLA antibodies are called sensitised patients. The outcome of humoral rejection is unfavourable: graft dysfunction and failure have been frequent from the early post-transplant period and are continuing. International laboratories and clinics offer sensitive and accurate methods to determine antibodies before and after kidney transplantation, but the methods are not always successful in recognition of sensitised patients. For diagnostics of humoral rejection the important issue is detecting complement breakdown deposition (C4d) in peritubular capillaries during immunohistological examination. On the one hand, their presence is characteristic for humoral rejection, but on the other hand, they can occur without any clinical changes or can remain undetected during severe humoral rejection. Current methods of prevention, diagnostics and treatment of humoral rejection are discussed. Difficulties of evaluation of chronic antibody-mediated injury are particularly highlighted.