H-Y Antigen Incompatibility Not Associated with Adverse Immunologic Graft Outcomes: Deceased Donor Pair Analysis of the OPTN Database

Abstract

Background. H-Y antigen incompatibility adversely impacts bone marrow transplants however, the relevance of these antigens in kidney transplantation is uncertain. Three previous retrospective studies of kidney transplant databases have produced conflicting results. Methods. This study analyzed the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network database between 1997 and 2009 using male deceased donor kidney transplant pairs in which the recipient genders were discordant. Death censored graft survival at six months, five, and ten years, treated acute rejection at six months and one year, and rates of graft failure by cause were the primary endpoints analyzed. Results. Death censored graft survival at six months was significantly worse for female recipients. Analysis of the causes of graft failure at six months revealed that the difference in death censored graft survival was due primarily to nonimmunologic graft failures. The adjusted and unadjusted death censored graft survivals at five and ten years were similar between the two genders as were the rates of immunologic graft failure. No difference in the rates of treated acute rejection at six months and one year was seen between the two genders. Conclusions. Male donor to female recipient discordance had no discernable effect on immunologically mediated kidney graft outcomes in the era of modern immunosuppression.

Figure 1

Kaplan Meier plot of death censored graft survival in the first 180 days after kidney transplantation Black line is female recipients of male donor kidneys; red line is male recipients of male donor kidneys. Note that the y-axis of survival analysis begins at 100% and ends at 95%. The difference in survival occurs in the first 30 days, and thereafter the slopes of the survival curves are nearly identical.

Figure 2

Kaplan Meier plot of death censored graft survival between six months and ten years post kidney transplantation. Black line is female recipients of male donor kidneys and the red line is male recipients of male donor kidneys. Note y-axis begins at 100% and ends at 70%.