Biomarkers of Tol/CR in Kidney Transplantation

Maria Hernandez Fuentes, Imperial College of Science, London, UK

Slowly deteriorating kidney allografts pose a clinical challenge to the transplant physician as the therapeutic options in this situation are limited. The gold standard procedure is to perform a biopsy of the graft but the information obtained will inform little as to the risk of the recipients to lose their graft. Identifying biomarkers for either imminent graft loss or for a process that is fundamentally immunologically driven, and in theory treatable, would allow an individually tailored approach to the management of these recipients.

Gene expression was analysed on an immune-specific array platform, namely RISET 2.0. Expression was screened on RNA samples from a training set that included 9 patients with a recent biopsy where immunologically driven chronic rejection could be identified. Recipient groups with different immunosuppressive regimes and stable function were used as controls. Highly predictive findings are being repeated on an independent test set.

This presentation will discuss the gene expression, the information on pathway analysis and their relevance to understand the underlying process of chronic rejection.