Studies on the microchimerism after kidney transplantation / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the state of microchimerism after kidney transplantation, and to evaluate the relationship between microchimerism and long term survival of transplanted kidney. Methods Leukocytes were collected from peripheral blood of 70 female recipients having received kidneys from males for the identification of microchimerism by means of amplifying the single copied sex determine region Y gene (SRY) by nested PCR. Results Half to 10 years after renal transplantation, the positive percentage of microchimerism in 70 female patients was 58.6%(41/70). These 70 patients were categorized into three groups according to the duration after the transplantation Group 1(n=25), 0.5 to 2 years; Group 2 (n=27), 2 to 5 years; and group 3 (n=18), over 5 years. The positive rates of microchimerism for three groups were 68%(17/25), 44.4%(11/27) and 72%(13/18), respectively. The positive rates in both group 1 and group 3 were significantly different compared with that in group 2 (P