Cadaver renal transplant outcome in recipients with autolymphocytotoxic antibodies

The major impact of autolymphocytotoxic antibodies (ALCA) on renal transplantation has been in the interpretation of the pretransplant crossmatch as a cause of false-positive results. Less attention has been paid to the direct affects of ALCA on renal allografts. We have examined the sera of 38 recipients of 41 cadaver renal allografts for the presence of ALCA. There were 9 patients with ALCA who received 10 allografts. In these allografts with ALCA, actuarial graft survival was significantly improved (P less than 0.05) over that of 31 transplants without ALCA. In recipients with ALCA, graft survival was 90% at six months and 60% at one and two years; in recipients without ALCA, graft survival was 48% at six months, 35% at one year and 24% at two years. ALCA may be exerting graft-enhancing properties by means of an autoregulatory effect upon the recipient's immunologic system.