Abstract

Identification of immune parameters that predict longterm graft outcome would aid in identifying those recipients at low versus high risk for immune complications and chronic rejection. Those recpients at low risk presumably could have their immunosuppression successfully lowered or even weaned thereby avoiding the many side effects of immunosuppressive therapy. Recipients who are at high risk for chronic rejection may benefit from changing or even increasing the immunosuppressive therapy. This article focuses on using cellular assays to monitor changes, quantitative and qualitative, in the T-cell recognition process during the posttransplant period, as a means to predict long-term graft outcome. We have focused our studies on the cellular immune parameter of donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity to determine whether we can predict long-term graft outcome for all solid organ recipients [1-8]...

Keywords: MLC, chronic rejection, donor-specific non-responsivness, limiting dilution