Organ-specific patterns of donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity and peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism in lung, kidney, and liver transplant recipients.

Although their relative importance and interaction are unclear, donor antigen(Ag)*-specific hyporeactivity and allogeneic microchimerism have been associated with improved long-term graft outcome and a lower incidence of chronic rejection in solid organ transplant recipients. We have postulated that a critical level of donor antigen, for a critical time period, is necessary to develop and maintain donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity; both the level and the time may differ by organ transplanted. In our current study, we tested donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity and peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism in liver and kidney recipients and compared these values with our previous findings in lung recipients. We tested 25 liver recipients at 12 to 29 months posttransplant: 10 (40%) had developed donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity; 5 (20%), peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism. For all but 1 of the chimeric and hyporeactive recipients, the level of donor cells was very low (< 1:20,000). Five hyporeactive recipients and all 15 donor antigen-responsive recipients did not have detectable levels of peripheral blood microchimerism. No chronic rejection has developed in any of these recipients to date--however, a lower incidence of acute rejection was observed for those recipients with donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity (30% versus 60% without) or with peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism (20% versus 55% without) (P = ns). These results differ from our previous findings in 19 lung recipients: at 12 to 18 months posttransplant, 35% of them had developed donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity; 47%, peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism. All donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity recipients as well as some donor antigen-responsive recipients had peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism. We expanded our current study to include 26 recipients and a quantitative estimate of the level of allogeneic microchimerism. We observed that the hyporesponsive recipients tended to have higher levels of donor cells in their peripheral blood (> 1:6,000) than did the responsive recipients. We previously reported that 22% of kidney recipients had developed donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity at 12 to 18 months posttransplant. In our current study of 33 kidney recipients, we observed peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism in 7 (21%) at 12 to 18 months posttransplant. The level of donor cells was very low (approximately 1:75,000), with no correlation between donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity and peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism at the time point tested. These studies emphasize the organ-specific nature of the development of donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity and the persistence of peripheral blood allogeneic microchimerism. Donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity correlates with very low levels of donor cells in liver recipients, while a higher critical level of donor cells is important in lung recipients. Additional sequential early posttransplant studies are necessary to further define the possible interrelationship between donor antigen and the development and maintenance of donor antigen-specific hyporeactivity.