Pretransplant monitoring of donor-recipient compatibility

In these studies, pretransplant testing of donor-recipient compatibility was performed in 10 related donor and 26 cadaveric renal transplants using a variety of cell-mediated immunity tests. Mixed lymphocyte culture results did not correlate with acute rejection (AR), acute irreversible rejection, or chronic rejection (CR). Lymphocyte-mediated cytolysis also did not correlate with AR, acute irreversible rejection, or CR. Cell-mediated lympholysis correlated with AR but not with acute irreversible rejection or CR. Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytolysis (ADCMC) was positive pretransplant in 13 (36%) of the recipients. Of the positive patients, 4 had early severe AR and 9 developed typical CR. Of these 13 patients, 9 or 69% lost graft function to rejection whereas only 3 of 20 (15%) of ADCMC-negative patients lost graft function because of rejection (P less than 0.05). In summary, cell-mediated lympholysis testing demonstrated a capability to predict AR episodes. The most useful pretransplant monitoring assay in this patient series was the ADCMC assay. A positive ADCMC against donor cells pretransplant indicates a relatively poor prognosis for long-term graft survival.