Lung transplantation has become an accepted treatment modality for end stage lung disease. Traditionally, immunosuppressive maintenance therapy consists of cyclosporin, azathioprine, and prednisolone in kidney and liver transplantation as well as in lung transplantation. Despite the use of these drugs, acute rejection occurs frequently, especially in the first weeks and months after lung transp...

BACKGROUND Prediction of acute kidney transplant rejection remains imperfect despite several known risk factors. There is an increasing appreciation of the potential importance of the vitamin D pathway in immunological disease and transplantation. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D with acute rejection. DES...

Lung transplantation has become an accepted therapy for end-stage lung disease. Acute rejection of the transplanted hung still remains a major clinical problem since it decreases graft survival. Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) from activated eosinophils, hyaluronan (HYA) from fibroblasts, and circulating intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (1CAM-1) have been associated with acute rejection in k...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES In spite of potent immunosuppression, acute rejection continues to be the single largest cause of graft dysfunction after renal transplantation. Renal allograft biopsy, though invasive, continues to be the reference standard, though certain clinical and biochemical parameters are helpful in assessment of these patients. Acute renal allograft rejection is mediated by T ly...

The main cause of mortality after the first year from cardiac transplantation is cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), which leads to chronic rejection of the heart. To improve long-term outcomes in cardiac transplantation, treatments to prevent or diminish CAV are actively being researched. Ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury has been shown to be the strongest alloantigen-independent factor in t...

BACKGROUND The clinical significance of vasculitides, ischemic lesions, Quilty effect and the presence of eosinophils in endomyocardial biopsies of heart transplantation recipients with mild rejection has yet to be established. OBJECTIVE To verify whether these histological findings observed in endomyocardial biopsies (eosinophils, vasculitides, Quilty effect and ischemic lesions) are capable...

The effects of acute (AR) and chronic rejection (CR) on intestinal smooth muscle that are responsible for the dysmotility following small bowel transplantation (SBTX) are incompletely understood. Jejunal and ileal specimens from normal control dogs (n=7), and autotransplanted dogs were examined at 7 days (n=6) and 1 (n=7), 3 (n=6), 6 (n=6), and 12 months (n=6). Allotransplanted dogs that develo...

Vascular endothelial cells act as antigen-presenting cells in the lung allograft and stimulate alloreactive host lymphocytes. Activated lymphocytes and cytokines can induce expression of leukocyte-endothelial adhesion molecules that facilitate invasion of the allograft by circulating leukocytes. To define the role of endothelial HLA class II antigen and adhesion molecule expression in lung allo...

INTRODUCTION Due to its immunosuppressive properties, local graft irradiation (LGI) has been proposed as a second line therapy for treatment of acute kidney rejection. CASE PRESENTATION In this case-series we report 6 patients with biopsy proven acute kidney allograft rejection refractory to conventional antirejection therapy who underwent LGI for treatment of acute rejection at our center. T...

OBJECTIVE We investigated the relationship between acute lung rejection and donor-specific cytotoxic activity (DSCA) in recipient's lymphocytes obtained from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). METHODS A total of 26 mongrel dogs underwent left lung allotransplantation. Dogs received either no immunosuppressive treatment (group I), cyclosporine (group II), or cyclosporine and methylprednisolone for ...