Biomarkers for renal transplantation: Where are we?

Abstract

Although surgical techniques, post-transplant care medicine, and immunosuppres-sants have been greatly improved, permanent acceptance of renal allograft remains a clinical challenge owing to the appearance of various infuencing factors. To predict graft dysfunction, development of noninvasive biomarkers is becoming a highlighted research topic in the feld of renal transplantation, which provides a possibility for physicians to give preemptive rescue treatment. From the viewpoint of diagnostic techniques, repetitive sampling is prerequisite to identify applicable biomarkers in the clinic. Early biomarkers can be used to dynamically monitor renal graft status and accurately predict transplant outcome independent of various confounders. This review highlights recent studies on the predictive value of biomarkers and methods to quantify biomarkers for monitoring kidney transplant. It is important to analyze and compare different biomarkers for living, and nonliving donors. Analysis of identifed clinically relevant biomarkers will advance our understanding of distinct molecular and cellular mechanisms of transplantation and provide insight into developing novel potential approaches to induce transplant tolerance. © 2013 Ge et al.