CD45RC Expression of Circulating CD8 + T Cells Predicts Acute Allograft Rejection: A Cohort Study of 128 Kidney Transplant Patients

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 8; no. 8; p. 1147
• Main Authors: Lemerle, Marie, Garnier, Anne-Sophie, Planchais, Martin, Brilland, Benoit, Subra, Jean-François, Blanchet, Odile, Blanchard, Simon, Croue, Anne, Duveau, Agnès, Augusto, Jean-François
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Elmer Press 01.08.2019; MDPI; MDPI AG
• Subjects: acute rejection; Cancer; CD45RC; kidney transplantation; Life Sciences; lymphocyte; CD45RC; acute rejection; kidney transplantation; lymphocyte
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 1918-3003; 2077-0383; 1918-3011
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm8081147

Predictive biomarkers of acute rejection (AR) are lacking. Pre-transplant expression of CD45RC on blood CD8 T cells has been shown to predict AR in kidney transplant (KT) patients. The objective of the present study was to study CD45RC expression in a large cohort of KT recipients exposed to modern immunosuppressive regimens. CD45RC expression on T cells was analyzed in 128 KT patients, where 31 patients developed AR, of which 24 were found to be T-cell mediated (TCMR). Pre-transplant CD4 and CD8 CR45RC T cell proportions were significantly higher in patients with AR. The frequency of CD45RC T cells was significantly associated with age at transplantation but was not significantly different according to gender, history of transplantation, pre-transplant immunization, and de novo donor specific anti-Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) antibody. Survival-free AR was significantly better in patients with CD8 CD45RC T cells below 58.4% (p = 0.0005), but not different according to CD4 T cells (p = 0.073). According to multivariate analysis, CD8 CD45RC T cells above 58.4% increased the risk of AR 4-fold (HR 3.96, p = 0.003). Thus, pre-transplant CD45RC expression on CD8 T cells predicted AR, mainly TCMR, in KT patients under modern immunosuppressive therapies. We suggest that CD45RC expression should be evaluated in a prospective study to validate its usefulness to quantify the pre-transplant risk of AR.