Cytokines and chronic rejection: A study in kidney transplant long-term survivors

Abstract

We observed that a match for class I and class II HLA antigens apparently does not favor the long-term survival of transplanted kidneys. In fact, matched grafts are lost before 10 years in the same proportion as the mismatched grafts. We also demonstrated (1) that patients who are homozygous for GG at the SNP -1082IL10 (high IL-10 producers) and HLA class I mismatched (but matched for class II) are protected from chronic rejection, and (2) that patients who are homozygous for CC at the SNP -33IL4 (low IL-4 producers) and HLA class I mismatched (regardless of matching for class II) are protected from chronic rejection.