Open Access

ARTICLE

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Spot (ELISpot) monitoring of cytokine-producing cells for the prediction of acute rejection in renal transplant patients

Fatemeh Mohammadi¹, Ghasem Solgi², Maryam Tajik¹, Pedram Ahmadpoor³, Hasan Nikoeinejad⁴, Behzad Einollahi⁴, Banafsheh Nazari¹, Mahboob Lessan-pezeshki⁵, Aliakbar Amirzargar^1,6

1 Molecular Immunology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan , Iran
3 Chronic Kidney Disease Research Center, Department of Nephrology, Shahid Labbafinejad Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of MedicalSciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Nephrology and urology research center, Baqiyatallah university of medical sciences, Tehran, Iran
5 Nephrology Research Center, Immam Komeini hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
6 Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

* Corresponding Authors: Aliakbar Amirzargar, ;

European Cytokine Network 2017, 28(3), 93-101. https://doi.org/10.1684/ecn.2017.0397

Accepted 16 June 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 (P < 0.0001). The ROC curve analysis for determining the reliability of cytokine-producing cells for the prediction of acute rejection revealed that AUC was 0.046 for IL-10 (P < 0.001), 0.927 for IL-17 (P < 0.001) and 0.929 for INF-γ-producing cells (P < 0.001). 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.

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Keywords

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