Immunological Aspects in Late Phase of Living Donor Liver Transplant Patients: Usefulness of Monitoring Peripheral Blood CD4+ Adenosine Triphosphate Activity

AIM To evaluate whether the combination of the peripheral blood CD4+ adenosine triphosphate activity (ATP) assay (ImmuKnow assay: IMK assay) and cytochrome P450 3A5 (CYP3A5) genotype assay is useful for monitoring of immunological aspects in the patient followup of more than one year after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). METHODS Forty-nine patients, who underwent LDLT more than one year ago, were randomly screened by using IMK assay from January 2010 to December 2011, and the complete medical records of each patient were obtained. The CYP3A5 genotypes were examined in thirty-nine patients of them. RESULTS The mean ATP level of the IMK assay was significantly lower in the patients with infection including recurrence of hepatitis C (HCV) (n = 10) than in those without infection (n = 39): 185 versus 350 ng/mL (P < 0.001), while it was significantly higher in the patients with rejection (n = 4) than in those without rejection (n = 45): 663 versus 306 ng/mL (P < 0.001). The IMK assay showed favorable sensitivity/specificity for infection (0.909/0.842) as well as acute rejection (1.0/0.911). CYP3A5 genotypes in both recipient and donor did not affect incidence of infectious complications. CONCLUSIONS In the late phase of LDLT patients, the IMK assay is very useful for monitoring immunological aspects including bacterial infection, recurrence of HCV, and rejection.