Anti-HLA Antibodies After Precocious Transplantectomy by Vascular Thrombosis

Our objective in this study was to determine the effects of early renal transplantectomy on patients and the production of anti-human leukocyte antigen (anti-HLA) antibodies.

Between January 2003 and May 2017, we analyzed a group of patients for the presence of specific HLA class I and/or II donor-specific antibodies (DSA), their panel-reactive antibodies (PRA), and the time period in which the antibodies were still detectable after transplantectomy.

Anti-HLA antibodies were detected in 60.8% of patients, 60.8% and 52.2% of those patients had anti-class I and anti-class II antibodies, respectively. DSA were detected in 91.7% of the anti-HLA class I patients. Class II DSA were detected all of the patients with anti-HLA class II antibodies. The average (mean ± SD) PRA levels in our patients after transplantectomy was 60 ± 34% in class I and 63 ± 36% in class II.

Anti-HLA antibodies can be detected well after transplantectomy. Even if the kidney allograft had been transplanted for only a short time, when the intensity of immunosuppression was the highest, many patients developed anti-HLA antibodies. The patients who continued with immunosuppression after transplantectomy did not develop anti-HLA antibodies.