Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec;36(12):3971-3979.
doi: 10.1007/s00467-021-05078-9. Epub 2021 Jun 7.

Eplet mismatches associated with de novo donor-specific HLA antibody in pediatric kidney transplant recipients

Affiliations

Eplet mismatches associated with de novo donor-specific HLA antibody in pediatric kidney transplant recipients

Olga Charnaya et al. Pediatr Nephrol. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Optimizing amino acid (eplet) histocompatibility at first transplant decreases the risk of de novo donor-specific antibody (dnDSA) development and may improve long-term graft survival in pediatric kidney transplant recipients (KTR). We performed a retrospective analysis of pediatric KTR and their respective donors to identify eplets most commonly associated with dnDSA formation.

Methods: Eplet mismatch analysis was performed in a cohort of 125 pediatric KTR-donor pairs (2006-2018). We determined the prevalence of each eplet mismatch and quantified the percentage of exposed patients who developed dnDSA for each mismatched eplet.

Results: Recipient median age was 14 (IQR 8-17) years with a racial distribution of 42% Black, 48% Caucasian, and 5.6% Middle-Eastern. Median eplet load varied significantly by recipient race, Black 82 (IQR 58-98), White 60 (IQR 44-81) and Other 66 (IQR 61-76), p = 0.002. Forty-four percent of patients developed dnDSA after median 37.1 months. Compared to dnDSA- patients, dnDSA+ patients had higher median eplet load, 64 (IQR 46-83) vs. 77 (IQR 56-98), p = 0.012. The most common target of dnDSA were eplets expressed in HLA-A*11 and A2 in Class I, and HLA-DQ6 and DQA5 in Class II. The most commonly mismatched eplets were not the most likely to result in dnDSA formation.

Conclusions: In a racially diverse population, only a subset of eplets was linked to antibody formation. Eplet load alone is not a sufficient surrogate for eplet immunogenicity. These findings illustrate the need to optimize precision in donor selection and allocation to improve long-term graft outcomes. Graphical Abstract A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.

Keywords: De novo DSA; Eplet mismatch; Kidney transplant; Pediatric.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

DISCLOSURE

The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose as described by the Journal of Pediatric Nephrology.

DECLARATIONS

Conflicts of interest/Competing interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Thirty Most Common Eplet Mismatches
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Thirty Most Common dnDSA Targets
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The Prevalence of Eplet Mismatch Exposure and dnDSA Development among Exposed Recipients

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Everly MJ, Rebellato LM, Haisch CE, Ozawa M, Parker K, Briley KP, Catrou PG, Bolin P, Kendrick WT, Kendrick SA, Harland RC, Terasaki PI (2013) Incidence and impact of de novo donor-specific alloantibody in primary renal allografts. Transplantation 95:410–417. 10.1097/TP.0b013e31827d62e3 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Engen RM, Park GE, Schumacher CS, Gimferrer I, Warner P, Finn LS, Weiss NS, Smith JM (2018) Donor-specific Antibody Surveillance and Graft Outcomes in Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients. Transplantation 102:2072–2079. 10.1097/tp.0000000000002310 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shieh M, Hayeck TJ, Dinh A, Duke JL, Chitnis N, Mosbruger T, Morlen RP, Ferriola D, Kneib C, Hu T, Huang Y, Monos DS (2020) A Combined HLA Molecular Mismatch and Expression Analysis for Evaluating HLA-DPB1 de novo Donor-Specific Antibody Risk in Pediatric Solid Organ Transplantation: Implications for Solid Organ & Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Preprint at medRxiv:2020.2001.2006.20016709. 10.1101/2020.01.06.20016709s - DOI
    1. Copley HC, Elango M, Kosmoliaptsis V (2018) Assessment of human leukocyte antigen immunogenicity: current methods, challenges and opportunities. Curr Opin Organ Transplant 23:477–485. 10.1097/mot.0000000000000544 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wiebe C, Kosmoliaptsis V, Pochinco D, Gibson IW, Ho J, Birk PE, Goldberg A, Karpinski M, Shaw J, Rush DN, Nickerson PW (2019) HLA-DR/DQ molecular mismatch: A prognostic biomarker for primary alloimmunity. Am J Transplant 19:1708–1719. 10.1111/ajt.15177 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types