[Kidney transplantation at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine].

Background: Kidney transplantation represents the method of choice of end stage renal disease.

Methods And Results: The program of kidney transplantation was established in 1966 in our centre. In recent years, roughly 200 patients have undergone kidney transplantation annually, and 20-30 of them have received a graft from the living donor.

Potential predictive markers in protocol biopsies for premature renal graft loss.

Background/aims: Protocol biopsies offer new possibilities to predict kidney allograft outcome. The aim of this study was to find clinical, laboratory, morphological and molecular predictors of short-term renal graft survival.

Methods: Three-month protocol kidney graft biopsy was carried out on 257 patients.

RAGE polymorphisms, renal function and histological finding at 12 months after renal transplantation.

Objectives: Rage (receptor for advanced glycation end products) is involved in pathogenesis of many diseases. The aim of the study was to test whether polymorphisms of RAGE gene are associated with the outcome of kidney transplantation.

Design And Methods: Four polymorphisms of the RAGE gene (-429T/C, -374T/A, Gly82Ser and 2184A/G) were assessed in 145 renal transplant recipients and their relationship to histological changes in 12 months protocol kidney graft biopsy and renal function was examined.

[Subclinical acute rejections in protocol biopsies at 3 months after kidney transplantation].

Aim: The primary aim of the study was detection of subclinical acute rejection and borderline changes in protocol biopsies at 3 months after transplantation, and assessment of possible clinical and laboratory associations.

Methods: Biopsy was carried out in 194 patients with stabilized graft function. Patients were treated with immunosuppressive regimen based on cyclosporine A (n = 34), tacrolimus (n = 152), or sirolimus/everolimus (n = 10).

The effect of different immunosuppressive regimens on TGF-beta1 expression in kidney transplant patients.

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 is a key profibrogenic cytokine associated with the pathogenesis of chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN). The primary aim of this study was to evaluate TGF-beta1 expression in protocol kidney graft biopsy in patients treated with different immunosuppressive regimens. Protocol kidney graft biopsies were carried out in 77 patients with stable graft function at 1 year after kidney transplantation, treated with a triple-drug regimen based on cyclosporin A (CyA; n = 49) or tacrolimus (TAC; n = 28).