[Urinary kallikrein-like activity in renal transplant recipients]

Koolen, M.I. et al. (1984) measured urinary kallikrein (UKal) in renal transplant recipients using 2 methods, S-2266 amidolytic assay and radioimmunoassay, and reported that the values by the former method showed an increase in amount at the time of acute rejection episode (ARE) despite of no variation in those by the latter. To clear the discrepancy, 24 hours excretion of UKal was measured by the amidolytic assay using Pro-Phe-Arg-MCA under 2 conditions, with and without soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI), in 10 living related kidney recipients (LR), their donors (LD), and 8 cadaver kidney recipients (CR), Furthermore, gel filtration chromatography (Sephacryl S-200) was performed in some recipients and LD to confirm whether the amidolytic activity (ALA) indicates exclusively UKal or not. The results were as follows. In LD, there were no statistical differences in ALA between not only before and after uninephrectomy but also with and without STI. On the post-operative course, some recipients showed a tendency of decrease in ALA with STI, and some kept a constant level. There occasionally appeared a difference between ALA with and without STI just after the transplantation, and at the time of ARE, acute tubular necrosis (ATN) or urinary tract infection (UTI). There was no fixed characteristic variation in ALA, both with and without STI, at the time of ARE. ALA with STI was lower in LR than in LD, and the lowest in CR, From the second week of transplantation and afterward, ALA with STI showed a positive correlation not with creatinine clearance but with urinary aldosterone.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)