Analysis of immune markers in human cardiac allograft recipients and association with coronary artery vasculopathy

Emilio D. Poggio, Meagan Roddy, Jocelyn Riley, Michael Clemente, Donald E. Hricik, Randall Starling, James B. Young, Barbara Gus, Mohamad H. Yamani, Peter S. Heeger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Because coronary artery vasculopathy (CAV) is a common cause of late cardiac allograft loss in humans, there is a need to develop and test non-invasive surrogate markers capable of detecting and predicting this disease entity. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of immune-based surrogate markers in 65 primary cardiac allograft recipients with or without angiographically documented CAV. Anti-donor cellular immunity was determined by interferon gamma (IFN)-γ enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISPOT) assays using donor HLA-derived peptides (indirect pathway), and anti-donor alloantibodies were detected by flow cytometry using HLA-coated beads. Results: Anti-donor cellular and humoral immunity were detected more frequently in patients with CAV (17 of 32, 53.1%) than in controls (4 of 33, 12.1%) (p < 0.001). Anti-donor cellular and humoral immunity were detected in different sub-groups of CAV patients; peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) from only 1 of 32 CAV patients reacted to donor peptides with simultaneous detection of peripheral anti-donor alloantibodies. Conclusions: Immune reactivity in cardiac transplant recipients with CAV differs significantly from those without CAV and the detected responses are heterogeneous in nature. Serial assessments of anti-donor immunity using different methods will be required to detect and possibly predict outcome in cardiac transplant recipients.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1606-1613
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Heart and Lung Transplantation
Volume24
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2005

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Surgery
  • Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Transplantation

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