Increasing peripheral T lymphocyte counts predict rejection in human orthotopic liver allografts

Our aim was to determine whether any consistent pattern of peripheral blood lymphocyte counts occurs that is predictive of allograft rejection in OLT recipients. OLT recipients who experienced allograft rejection more than ten days posttransplant had elevated T cell counts before the onset of rejection when compared with a control group of recipients who did not experience allograft rejection. A rise in T cell subset counts from the pretransplant value to the value at ten days posttransplant indicated and increased likelihood of subsequent rejection. The converse was also true.