Study of the association between the donors and recipients angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion gene polymorphism and the acute renal allograft rejection

BACKGROUND Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) is involved in various pathophysiological conditions including renal function. ACE levels are under genetic control. OBJECTIVES This study was designed to investigate the association between the donors and recipients ACE-I/D gene polymorphism and risk of acute rejection outcome in renal allograft recipients. PATIENTS AND METHODS ACE-I/D polymorphism was determined in 200 donor-recipient pairs who had been referred to Afzalipour hospital in Kerman. ACE-I/D polymorphism was detected using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Acute rejection (AR) during at least six months post-transplantation was defined as a 20% increase in creatinine level from the postoperative baseline in the absence of other causes of graft dysfunction which responded to antirejection therapy. RESULTS The observed allele frequencies were II 9.8%, ID 35.6% and DD 44.4% in donors and II 9.8%, ID 35.1% and DD 52.7% in recipients. There were no significant association between ACE genotypes and AR episodes (ORID=0.96 [0.18-5.00] and ORDD: 1.24 [0.25-6.07] for the donors) and (ORID: 0.29 [0.06-1.45] and ORDD: 0.75 [0.19-2.90] for the recipients). CONCLUSIONS It seems that donor and recipient ACE-I/D genotype might not be a risk factor for acute renal allograft rejection. However, due to conflicting results from this and other studies, multicenter collaborative studies with more participants and concomitant evaluation of ACE polymorphism with other polymorphisms in renin-angiotensin system (RAS) are suggested to determine whether ACE genotypes are significant predictors of renal allograft rejection.