Influence of human leukocyte antigen matching on long-term outcome after lung transplantation

Abstract

Background and methods: The importance of human leukocyte antigen matching for long-term outcome after lung transplantation is uncertain. We therefore analyzed retrospectively 78 consecutive primary, isolated lung transplantations (37 female, 41 male; 40 single, 38 bilateral) performed between October 1989 and October 1995 for which human leukocyte antigen typing of both donor and recipient was available. The follow-up ranged from 1 day to 60.3 months. Graft failure, defined as retransplantation or patient death, served as end point.

Results: Graft survival was significantly better with one mismatch at the B locus than with two mismatches (p = 0.046): 67% versus 51% and 61% versus 25% graft survival at 12 and 36 months, respectively. For the B and DR loci combined, a marked matching effect was also observed (p = 0.21 for zero to two mismatches versus three to four mismatches: 81% versus 62% and 51% versus 29% graft survival at 12 and 36 months, respectively. The sum of mismatches at the A, B, C, and DR loci combined showed a similar effect (p = 0.17 for zero to four mismatches versus five to eight mismatches: 83% versus 62% and 58% versus 29% graft survival at 12 and 36 months, respectively. Although no clear effect could be shown for the isolated DR locus, the outcome for the three patients with zero mismatches was notably good: one patient is alive at 27 months, two died 37 and 48 months after transplantation. The number of acute rejection episodes showed a clear but insignificant correlation to the number of mismatches. A similar trend was observed for the incidence of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome.

Conclusions: In summary, a strong influence of human leukocyte antigen matching on the long-term outcome after lung transplantation is suggested by our results. A clear trend toward improved graft survival with better human leukocyte antigen matching was observed, with the most significant effect occurring at the B locus.