The Allo-Immunological Injury in Chronic Allograft Nephropathy

Progressive loss of renal allograft function after the first year of kidney transplant is often referred to as chronic rejection, transplant nephropathy, transplant glomerulopathy or chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN) and the use of these terms is often interchangeable. Clinically, it is usually diagnosed by a slowly rising serum creatinine level, increasing proteinuria and worsening hypertension (Zhang et al., 2004). CAN is the second most common cause of graft loss after the leading cause, death with a functioning graft (DWFG) (Zhang et al., 2004). According to estimates, 25-30% of patients currently awaiting kidney transplant have received a transplant before.