CASE REPORT
Transfer of donor anti-HLA antibody expression to multiple transplant recipients: A potential variant of the passenger lymphocyte syndrome?

https://doi.org/10.1111/ajt.15262Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open archive

Antibody-mediated rejection, whereby transplant recipient B cells and/or plasma cells produce alloreactive anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies, negatively influences transplant outcomes and is a major contributor to graft loss. An early humoral immune response is suggested by the production of anti-HLA donor-specific antibodies (DSA) that can be measured using solid phase assays. We report the early posttransplant coexistence of a shared anti-HLA antibody profile in 5 solid organ transplant recipients who received organs from the same donor. Retrospective analysis of the donor’s serum confirmed the presence of the same anti-HLA profile, suggesting the transfer of donor-derived anti-HLA antibodies, or the cells that produce them, to multiple solid organ transplant recipients. The time frame and extent of transfer suggest a novel variant of the passenger lymphocyte syndrome. These findings have important implications for the consideration of all posttransplant antibody measurements, particularly the interpretation of non-DSAs in the sera of transplant recipients.

KEYWORDS

clinical research/practice
crossmatch
histocompatibility
lung (allograft) function/dysfunction
lung transplantation/pulmonology
major histocompatibility complex (MHC)
organ transplantation in general
rejection: antibody-mediated (ABMR)

Abbreviations

AMR
antibody-mediated rejection
CMV
cytomegalovirus
DSA
donor-specific antibody
HLA
human leukocyte antigen
MFI
mean fluorescence intensity
PLS
passenger lymphocyte syndrome
TMAT
transplantation-mediated allo-immune thrombocytopenia

Cited by (0)