Outcomes of Living-Donor Kidney Transplantation in Female Recipients with Possible Pregnancy-Related Pre-Sensitization According to Donor Relationship

Abstract

BACKGROUND Given that pregnancy is an immune-sensitizing event, female kidney transplant recipients who receive allografts from their offspring or husbands may have a higher risk of rejection and graft failure due to pre-sensitization acquired during pregnancy or childbirth. We investigated the association between donor relatedness (i.e., offspring, husband, unrelated) and graft survival among female living-donor kidney transplant (LDKT) recipients with pregnancy histories. MATERIAL AND METHODS From January 2009 to January 2018, a total of 2060 LDKTs were performed at Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. After excluding HLA-incompatible transplantation, re-transplantation, and those without a clear history of childbirth, 390 female recipients were included and categorized into group I (offspring-to-mother, n=175), group II (husband-to-wife, n=159), and group III (unrelated, n=56). The primary endpoint was biopsy-proven acute rejection (BPAR) and graft survival. We also evaluated delayed graft function (DGF), death-censored graft failure, and mortality. RESULTS Group I had the lowest number of HLA mismatches (p<0.001), and group II had the highest number of ABO-incompatible transplantations (p=0.005). At 5 years after transplant, graft survival and death-censored graft survival did not significantly differ among the 3 groups (graft survival: 96.0% vs. 95.5% vs. 93.3%, p=0.685; death-censored graft survival: 98.3% vs. 97.5% vs. 100%, p=0.732). Five-year BPAR-free survival showed no significant differences among the 3 groups (88.6 vs. 88.7 vs. 88.6%, p=0.842). Group II had the highest rate of clinical rejection (p=0.103) and DGF (p=0.174), but the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Female LDKT recipients with possible pregnancy-related pre-sensitization who received grafts from offspring or husbands did not show significantly worse clinical outcomes than those who received grafts from unrelated donors.

Figure 1

Flow diagram of the study.

Figure 2

Rates of graft survival and death-censored graft survival at 5 years after transplant. (A) Graft survival rates (96.0% vs. 95.5% vs. 93.3%, p=0.685) and (B) death-censored graft survival rates (98.3% vs. 97.5% vs. 100%, p=0.732). Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to describe and compare the rates of graft survival.

Figure 3

Five-year BPAR-free survival rates (88.6 vs. 88.7 vs. 88.6%, p=0.842). Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to describe and compare the biopsy-proven acute rejection (BPAR)-free survival.