Acute transplant glomerulopathy with monocyte rich infiltrate

Acute transplant glomerulopathy refers to alloimmune mediated endothelial injury and glomerular inflammation that typically occurs early post-kidney transplantation. We report a case of a 48-year old woman with end stage renal disease from lupus nephritis who developed an unexplained rise in serum creatinine 2 months after renal transplant. As immunosuppression, she received alemtuzumab induction followed by a tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and prednisone maintenance regimen. Her biopsy revealed severe glomerular endothelial injury associated with monocyte/macrophage-rich infiltrate in addition to mild acute tubulointerstitial cellular rejection. We briefly discuss acute transplant glomerulitis, its pathology and association with chronic/overt transplant glomerulopathy, C4d negative antibody-mediated rejection and the significance of monocytes in rejection. We also postulate that alemtuzumab induction may have contributed to the unusual pattern of monocyte-rich transplant glomerulitis.