Effectiveness of Perioperative Immunologic Markers Monitoring for Predicting Early Acute Cellular Rejection After Living Donor Liver Transplantation

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to determine whether perioperative immunologic markers monitoring could predict early acute cellular rejection (ACR) after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).Materials and methodsFrom September 2010 to June 2013, a total of 172 patients underwent LDLT at our transplant center. Of them, 26 patients were excluded because of infection. We retrospectively reviewed the remaining 146 patients. CD4 lymphocyte activity, T cell subsets test, and serum cytokine panel were checked on the day before transplantation and at 20 days after transplantation. These patients were divided into 3 groups: 1. normal liver function test (LFT) group; 2. increased LFT without rejection group; and 3. early ACR group. We excluded the increased LFT without rejection group in order to rule out multiple factors influencing immunologic factors.ResultsCD4 lymphocyte activity (P = .004) was significantly increased while CD4+/CD25+/FOXP3+ cells (P < .001) and interleukin (IL)-17 (P = .002) levels were significantly decreased during the perioperative period. Pretransplant IL-6 (P = .014) and IL-17 (P = .029) levels in the early ACR group were significantly lower than those in the normal LFT group. The proportion of patients with increased IL-6 during perioperative period in the early ACR group was higher than that in the normal LFT group, although the difference was not statistically significant (P = .065).ConclusionOur results suggest that IL-6 and IL-17 levels are associated with early ACR in LDLT patients. However, whether monitoring perioperative immunologic markers could predict early ACR remains unclear. Further prospective studies are needed to reach a definite conclusion.     

Sensitization assessment before kidney transplantation

Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end stage renal disease to optimize survival, freedom from morbidity and quality of life. A fundamental aspect of the pre-transplant assessment is a thorough understanding of their immunological history and prior exposures, so that the immunological risk from a given donor can be estimated, if not quantified, in order to guide interventions to optimize transplant access and success. The methodologies available to complete this assessment have evolved rapidly, with flow cytometric based analyses now standard in many laboratories, availability of comprehensive molecular methods for HLA typing of both donors and recipients, and an increasing recognition of the vital dialogue that must occur between the HLA laboratory and transplant clinicians. This review considers the pre-transplant histocompatibility assessment journey that a recipient undertakes, from initial referral through transplantation, discussing the methodologies used, the benefits and limitations offered by current technologies, and reviewing the basics of interpretation.     

The expanding repertoire of targets for immune checkpoint inhibition in bladder cancer: What lies beneath the tip of the iceberg,PD-L1

Over the last decade, a new understanding of tumor-immune system interplay has been ushered in, lead in large part by the discovery of immune checkpoints mediated through B7-CD28 family interactions. Therapeutic blockade of the PD-L1 immune checkpoint pathway has already shown great success as a cancer immunotherapy for advanced urothelial carcinoma, leading to durable clinical remissions in an otherwise incurable disease. There are newly described members of the B7-CD28 family including B7-H3, B7x, and HHLA2. These ligands are thought to play an essential role in suppressing T-cell response, leading to immune tolerance of tumors. This feature makes them attractive targets for novel immunotherapy treatment paradigms. Here, we review the literature of current strategies and future directions of immune checkpoint blockade therapy for bladder cancer.     

Recent developments in the management of bladder cancer: Introduction

An upsurge of advances in the management of bladder cancer has rapidly occurred over the past 2 years. In this issue, recent developments in the management of bladder cancer will be discussed, including the emerging role of immunotherapy, biomarkers, and advanced imaging.     

Identification of men with low-risk biopsy-confirmed prostate cancer as candidates for active surveillance

Background

A combined clinical cell-cycle risk (CCR) score that incorporates prognostic molecular and clinical information has been recently developed and validated to improve prostate cancer mortality (PCM) risk stratification over clinical features alone. As clinical features are currently used to select men for active surveillance (AS), we developed and validated a CCR score threshold to improve the identification of men with low-risk disease who are appropriate for AS.