[Cellular immunity to donor antigens after kidney transplants in humans]

Decisive for controlling renal transplantation is the knowledge of the immunological reactions. The cellular immuno-mechanisms, released via sensibilization by donor HL-A antigens, are specially important for acute rejection. To predict a crisis of rejection and to initiate increased immuno-suppressive measures it is important to know the degree of cellular immunologic response. The sensibilization was demonstrated in the experiments by means of the MEM test, using graft antigens isolated from spleen or kidney of the donor. In all patients an increasing sensibilization against donor antigen could be proved. The velocity of this sensibilization seems of value for predicting the duration of the graft's survival.