Background: Compared to living donations, cadaveric transplants have a poorer outcome, and the immunologic status of renal tissues at the time of transplantation might influence the final outcome of the renal allograft.
Patients and methods: We used quantitative RT-PCR to evaluate the differential expression of cytokine genes from 37 implantation tissues [18 cadaveric tissues (CI), 19 specimens from living donors (LI)]. We compared them with 17 acutely rejecting allograft (AR).
Results: Acute rejection within 6 months after transplantation occurred 8 times in patients with cadaveric allograft, but the living-donor recipients experienced 4 episodes (P<0.05). Proinflammatory cytokines were co-expressed more frequently in CI than in LI. The levels of IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha and IL-10 mRNA were also higher in CI. We compared the profiles of several cytokine expressions of CI with those of AR. The messages for IL-6 were more abundant in the CI, IFN-gamma was more expressed in AR, and the other cytokine expression levels were similar in both types. However, when comparing LI and AR, all the cytokine messages except IL-6 were up-regulated in AR than in LI. In CI, the levels of cytokine gene expressions were similar despite various cold ischemic time except IL-10 that were elevated for those cases where the operation was done within 4 hr of nephrectomy.
Conclusions: The numbers and levels of gene transcription of inflammatory cytokines were higher in the tissues from a cadaver, and were not different from those of AR. This immunologic hostility at the time of implantation would contribute to the poorer outcome of cadaveric allograft.