TY - JOUR
T1 - Cell population in spleens during antibody-mediated rejection
T2 - Pathologic and clinical findings
AU - Tzvetanov, Ivo
AU - Spaggiari, Mario
AU - Oberholzer, Jose
AU - Setty, Suman
AU - Stephenson, Amanda
AU - Thielke, James
AU - West-Thielke, Patricia
AU - Jeon, Hoonbae
AU - Danielson, Kirstie K.
AU - Kaplan, Bruce
AU - Benedetti, Enrico
PY - 2012/8/15
Y1 - 2012/8/15
N2 - Background: In the treatment of refractory antibody-mediated rejection (AMR), splenectomy has been associated with surprisingly rapid recovery of renal function. The mechanism is still unclear. Methods: We review 11 recipients, who underwent rescue splenectomy (RS) as a treatment of AMR within 3 months after kidney transplantation. At transplantation, all patients had undergone desensitization for initially positive crossmatch to their prospective donors. The cellular populations of the spleen were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. For comparison, we obtained spleen specimens from eight controls who were nontransplantation patients. Results: Rejection occurred in all the patients early after transplantation (mean [SD], 7.1 [5.7] days). One graft was lost 4 weeks after kidney transplantation. A significantly higher number of plasma cells (PCs) (P=0.049) and lower number of T and B lymphocytes (P=0.02 and P=0.005, respectively) were detected in the RS group compared with the control group. By analyzing the PC variations in the RS group, significantly lower numbers of PCs were detected in the spleens of patients who received rituximab before splenectomy (P=0.0004). In contrast, a higher number of PCs were found in patients (n=3) who did not respond to splenectomy and subsequently underwent bortezomib treatment and recovered their renal function (P=0.02). Conclusions: Splenectomy may reverse AMR by debulking PCs. Our analysis suggests that patients with a very high load of PCs may not be rescued by splenectomy alone and may need additional treatments.
AB - Background: In the treatment of refractory antibody-mediated rejection (AMR), splenectomy has been associated with surprisingly rapid recovery of renal function. The mechanism is still unclear. Methods: We review 11 recipients, who underwent rescue splenectomy (RS) as a treatment of AMR within 3 months after kidney transplantation. At transplantation, all patients had undergone desensitization for initially positive crossmatch to their prospective donors. The cellular populations of the spleen were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. For comparison, we obtained spleen specimens from eight controls who were nontransplantation patients. Results: Rejection occurred in all the patients early after transplantation (mean [SD], 7.1 [5.7] days). One graft was lost 4 weeks after kidney transplantation. A significantly higher number of plasma cells (PCs) (P=0.049) and lower number of T and B lymphocytes (P=0.02 and P=0.005, respectively) were detected in the RS group compared with the control group. By analyzing the PC variations in the RS group, significantly lower numbers of PCs were detected in the spleens of patients who received rituximab before splenectomy (P=0.0004). In contrast, a higher number of PCs were found in patients (n=3) who did not respond to splenectomy and subsequently underwent bortezomib treatment and recovered their renal function (P=0.02). Conclusions: Splenectomy may reverse AMR by debulking PCs. Our analysis suggests that patients with a very high load of PCs may not be rescued by splenectomy alone and may need additional treatments.
KW - Antibody-mediated rejection
KW - Kidney transplantation
KW - Plasma cells
KW - Splenectomy
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U2 - 10.1097/TP.0b013e3182562881
DO - 10.1097/TP.0b013e3182562881
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22790386
AN - SCOPUS:84864716977
SN - 0041-1337
VL - 94
SP - 255
EP - 262
JO - Transplantation
JF - Transplantation
IS - 3
ER -