The combination of donor and recipient age is critical in determining host immunoresponsiveness and renal transplant outcome.

Objective: To evaluate the interaction of donor and recipient age on transplant outcome and immune response.

Summary Background Data: The age of donor and recipient is becoming increasingly important in organ transplantation. We tested the relevance and consequences of recipient and donor age on immunoresponsiveness and transplant outcome in a uni- and multilateral cohort analysis.

Risk factors and outcomes of pancreatitis after open heart surgery.

Background: We sought to analyze the risk factors and natural history associated with post-cardiac surgery acute pancreatitis.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of all patients having undergone cardiac surgery at our hospital between January 1, 1992, and October 1, 2001.

Results: A total of 10,249 cardiac operations were performed.

Selectin blockade plus therapy with low-dose sirolimus and cyclosporin a prevent brain death-induced renal allograft dysfunction.

Both antigen-dependent and -independent factors influence long-term organ allograft function and survival. Brain death (BD), a significant antigen-independent, donor-related injury upregulates a variety of inflammatory mediators in peripheral organs. One of the earliest responses to such an insult is the expression of selectins by endothelial cells of the transplanted tissues; these in turn trigger a cascade of nonspecific events, that enhance host alloresponses and which may be worsened by toxic effects of long-term immunosuppression.

Donor hypertension increases graft immunogenicity and intensifies chronic changes in long-surviving renal allografts.

Background: Marginal donor organs are used increasingly for transplantation. To define the influences of donor hypertension, we compared the behavior of kidney allografts from hypertensive and normotensive donors in an established rat model of chronic rejection.

Methods: Donor hypertension was induced by partial occlusion of the right renal artery with a silver clip.

Recipient hypertension potentiates chronic functional and structural injury of rat renal allografts.

Background: Systemic hypertension affects many allograft recipients, is an important risk factor for chronic graft dysfunction, and is linked to reduced graft survival. The condition may up-regulate the expression of inflammatory host cells and their products. These, in turn, may significantly injure vascular endothelium and other components of allografted kidneys.

Normalization of brain death-induced injury to rat renal allografts by recombinant soluble P-selectin glycoprotein ligand.

Donor brain death has been considered a significant risk factor for both early and late organ allograft dysfunction. This central injury not only evokes an upsurge of catecholamines with resultant peripheral tissue vasoconstriction and ischemia but also promotes release of hormones and inflammatory mediators that may also affect the organs directly. One of the resultant influences of these events is the rapid upregulation of the acute-phase adhesion molecules, the selectins.

Early and late injury to renal transplants from non-heart-beating donors.

Background: The lack of adequate numbers of kidneys for transplantation has stimulated interest in the use of organs from non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs). The short- and long-term effects of this risk factor on kidney isografts and allografts were examined with a rat model.

Methods: NHBDs were killed by ether overdose.

Anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody therapy prevents chronic rejection of renal allografts in rats.

The effects of a signaling anti-CD28 mAb (JJ319), which interferes with the CD28-B7 T cell costimulation pathway thought to be involved in the development of chronic rejection of organ transplants, was investigated. Functional, morphologic, and molecular changes in rat renal allografts were examined up to 24 wk after placement. Control Lewis rats, recipients of F344 kidneys, received a single dose of a nonspecific mouse mAb intravenously on the day of transplantation (group 1).

Influence of donor brain death on chronic rejection of renal transplants in rats.

The clinical observation that the results of kidney grafts from living donors (LD), regardless of relationship with the host, are consistently superior to those of cadavers suggests an effect of brain death (BD) on organ quality and function. This condition triggers a series of nonspecific inflammatory events that increase the intensity of the acute immunologic host responses after transplantation (Tx). Herein are examined the influences of this central injury on late changes in renal transplants in rats.