[Predictive value of IL-2R in renal tissue during acute renal allograft rejection]

The pattern of intragraft immunological events associated with acute cellular rejection (ACR) has been previously defined. We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study to compare the clinical significance of various immunological markers in renal materials obtained from human renal allografts. Three to 6 consecutive allograft biopsies were obtained from 17 serial human transplant recipients over an 8-month period. A total of 59 core needle biopsies were examined. The expression of interlukin-2 receptor (IL-2R) in interstitial infiltrates, as well as the presence of CD4/CD8 T cell infiltrates were assessed by immunocytochemical staining of frozen sections. When ACR occurred, IL-2R expression increased about 16.3 fold in the renal specimens significantly as compared with those specimens without ACR. After MTX-pulse therapy the expression of IL-2R in biopsies were evidently down-regulated about 60%. The results suggested that the expression of IL-2R in renal allograft may be a useful and helpful adjunct in the diagnosis of ongoing acute cellular rejection, and decrease in these expression may be indicative of successful antirejection therapy.