Arterial stiffness in kidney transplantation: a single center case-control study comparing belatacept versus calcineurin inhibitor immunosuppressive based regimen.

Arterial stiffness is nowadays a well-accepted predictor of cardiovascular mortality in general population; as well as in kidney transplant recipient population. The femoral-carotid pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) is the widest used method to assess the arterial stiffness. The aim of this study was to test whether CNI-free immunosuppression based on belatacept was associated with lower cf-PWV, as a surrogate marker of arterial stiffness, than CNI.

Ischemic preconditioning in solid organ transplantation: from experimental to clinics.

This study reviews the current understanding of ischemic preconditioning (IP) in experimental and clinical setting, and the mechanisms that mediate the complex processes involved as a tool to protect against ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury, but is not intended as a complete literature review of preconditioning. IP has been mainly elucidated in cardiac ischemia. Recent reports confirm the efficacy of pre- and postconditioning in cardiac surgery and percutaneous coronary interventions in humans.