Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Spot (Elispot) Monitoring of Cytokine-Producing Cells for the Prediction of Acute Rejection in Renal Transplant Patients Publisher Pubmed



Mohammadi F¹ ; Solgi G² ; Tajik M¹ ; Ahmadpoor P³ ; Nikoeinejad H⁴ ; Einollahi B⁴ ; Nazari B¹ ; Lessanpezeshki M⁵ ; Amirzargar A^{1, 7} Show Affiliations
Source: European Cytokine Network Published:2017

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate T-cell immunity markers using serial post-transplantation monitoring of cytokine-producing cells during the first post-transplant months for the prediction of acute rejection and potentially chronic rejection of kidney allograft. We followed 57 kidney allograft recipients for meanly 3 years post-transplantation. Blood samples were collected pre-transplant, 2, 4 and 12 weeks post-transplant. The frequencies of IL-10-, IL-17- and IFN-γ-producing cells were determined in all time-points using ELISPOT assay. The results of ELISpot monitoring and levels of IL-23 and TGF-β were compared between recipients with acute (n = 12) or chronic rejection episodes and patients with stable graft function (n = 45). In all post-transplant time-points, significantly high frequencies of IFN-γ- and IL-17-producing cells and low frequency of IL-10-producing cells were observed in rejection group versus patients with stable graft function (POpenSPiltSPi0.0001). TheROCcurve analysis for determining the reliability of cytokine-producing cells for the prediction of acute rejection revealed that AUC was 0.046 for IL-10 (POpenSPiltSPi0.001), 0.927 for IL-17 (POpenSPiltSPi0.001) and 0.929 for INF-γ-producing cells (POpenSPiltSPi0.001). Our results indicate that analyzing the frequencies of INF-γ/IL-10/IL-17-producing cells may define a reliable panel for the prediction of acute rejection within the first post-transplant year which could also be applicable for the prediction of chronic rejection episodes. © 2017, John Libbey Eurotext.