Background: Differences in early posttransplant immunologic responses between living donor (LDT) and cadaver donor transplant (CDT) recipients have not been thoroughly studied. This is the first study comparing lymphocyte subpopulations and plasma levels of different cytokines, soluble cytokine receptors, cytokine receptor antagonists, and neopterin during the first 2 posttransplant weeks.
Patients and methods: Lymphocyte subpopulations (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD16, CD19, and CD25) and plasma levels of soluble (s) interleukin(IL)-1 receptor antagonist (RA), IL-2, sIL-2R, IL-3, IL-4, IL-6, sIL-6R, IL-8, IL-10, transforming growth factor-beta(2), tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interferon-gamma, and neopterin were studied in 52 CDT and 33 LDT recipients 1 to 2, 4 to 6, and 8 to 10 days after transplantation.
Results: The most impressive finding was a consistently higher neopterin plasma level in CDT than LDT recipients. Although plasma neopterin decreased during the second posttransplant week in both groups (CDT, P = 0.0001; LDT, P = 0.001), the difference in plasma neopterin levels 8-10 days after transplantation was highly significant (P = 0.005). In contrast, LDT had consistently higher sIL-1RA plasma levels during the first 2 posttransplant weeks. Whereas sIL-1RA plasma levels decreased in both groups during the first posttransplant week (CDT, P = 0.001; LDT, P = 0.005), they increased during the second posttransplant week in LDT (P = 0.02) but remained stable and low in CDT recipients. Eight to ten days after transplantation, the difference was highly significant (P = 0.002).
Conclusion: These data suggest that transplantation of CDT is associated with strong monocyte-macrophage activation with consistently high neopterin plasma levels, whereas the effect of inflammatory cytokines seems to be down-regulated in LDT recipients by an increased release of antiinflammatory sIL-1RA.