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Updated: Jun 9, 2026
A Simple Bioassay for the Evaluation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
Published on: March 15, 2016
Evaluation of the bioassay for detecting early endothelial activation using microvascular cultures in renal
Xin Jiang1, Ming Li2, Jun Fang2
1Department of Kidney Transplantation, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou University, 7 Weiwu Road, Zhengzhou, Henan Province 450000, China; Department of Organ Transplantation, The Fifth Medical College of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, 33 Huanghe Road, Zhengzhou, Henan Province 450000, China.
Objective:
This study aims to establish a serological bioassay for the detection of microvascular endothelial activation in transplanted kidneys as a non-invasive alternative.
Method:
We prospectively harvested microvascular cells (MVCs) from living related or deceased donors and then crossmatched with the sera collected before and after transplantation in recipients. IL-8 releases and cellular membrane adhesion molecules were measured as markers of activation. The activation at 0 months was compared to that of 3 and 6 months. The AUC characteristics of the assay were evaluated using eGFR and proteinuria as clinical classifiers.
Results:
MVC activation at both time points was significantly higher than that of pre-transplantation (χ2t-test, P < .05). MVC activation was significantly associated with IL-6 levels in serum (P ≤ .05) but not with TNF-α, INF-γ, and IL-1β. Three out of 10 positive MVC crossmatch recipients developed PRA, while 2 out of 9 negative MVC recipients also developed positive PRA. Among the 27 post-transplants tested, the sensitivity, specificity, and AUC at 3 months were 52%, 100%, and 0.7037 (95% CI = 0.56-0.85), respectively. At 6 months, these values were 48.8%, 100%, and 0.7407 (95% CI = 0.61-0.88), respectively. Although MVC activation at 3 months and 6 months exhibited a high positive predictive value of 100%, a low negative predictive value of 26.7% at 3 months and 20.0% at 6 months. Furthermore, we found that early MVC activation occurring 3-6 months post-transplantation predicted a dysfunctional eGFR at 12 months (AUC = 0.6852, P value = .02), but not proteinuria at this timepoint.
Conclusions:
Crossmatch with MVC cultures detects endothelial activation closely linked to early post-transplant kidney dysfunction.
