Immune parameters to serve as biomarkers and clinical significance in tolerant patients after liver transplantations / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the related immune parameters in liver transplantation recipients to help guide adjusting future immunosuppressants.Methods Fifty-three tolerant recipients after liver transplantation were included in this study.They had normal liver functions and took only one immunosuppressive drug.They were divided into the 3 ～5 years tolerance group (3Y group,n =21) (including 5 years) after transplantation,and the 5 ～ 11 years tolerance group (5Y group,n =32).Another 15 liver transplantation recipients who had twice or more recurrent acute rejections were enrolled as the RJ group and 32 age-matched healthy donors served as the HC group.The natural killer (NK) cells,B cells,memory T cells,regulatory T cells (Tregs) and the subsets were detected by flow cytometry.The plasma TGF-β level was evaluated using ELISA.Results The percentages of NK cells (3Y group 19.00 ± 0.09,5Y group 20.00 ±0.09,HC group 14.00 ±0.07,RJ group 9.00 ±0.03) and total Tregs within the CD4+ cells (3Y group 6.26 ±2.33,5Y group 4.80 ±2.21,HC group 3.04 ± 1.25,RJ group 1.09 ±0.81) in the 3Y,5Y and HC groups were significantly higher than those in the RJ group (P ＜ 0.05).The proportions of resting Tregs (3Y group 0.23 ±0.07,5Y group 0.16 ±0.02,HC group 0.07 ±0.02,RJ group 0.05 ±0.01),active Tregs (3Y group 0.56 ± 0.11,5Y group 0.42 ± 0.15,HC group 0.08 ± 0.02,RJ group 0.05 ± 0.01) and non-suppressive Tregs (3Y group 3.51 ±0.80,5Y group 3.71 ±0.41,HC group 1.44 ±0.14,RJ group 2.15 ± 0.62) increased significantly in the tolerant recipients after liver transplantation when compared with those in the HC and RJ groups (all P ＜ 0.05).No significant differences on B cells,memory T cells and TGF-β level were detected among in four groups.Conclusions The NK cells,total Tregs,resting Tregs,active Tregs and non-suppressive Tregs increased significantly in the tolerant recipients after liver transplantation.These might serve as potential biomarkers for immune tolerance.