How to Estimate the Probability of Tolerance Long-Term in Liver Transplant Recipients.

Background: Operational tolerance as the ability to accept the liver transplant without pharmacological immunosuppression is a common phenomenon in the long-term course. However, it is currently underutilized due to a lack of simple diagnostic support and fear of rejection despite its recognized benefits. In the present work, we present a simple score based on clinical parameters to estimate the probability of tolerance.

Liver Transplantation for Metamizole induced Acute Liver Failure.

Metamizole, or dipyrone, is a frequently prescribed analgetic drug that can cause drug-induced liver injury (DILI). Still, there are only a few metamizole-associated DILI cases (n = 61, including our study) described in the literature. So far liver transplantation has been reported in 6 patients with metamizole-induced acute liver failure.

Regulatory T cells for minimising immune suppression in kidney transplantation: phase I/IIa clinical trial.

Objective: To assess whether reshaping of the immune balance by infusion of autologous natural regulatory T cells (nTregs) in patients after kidney transplantation is safe, feasible, and enables the tapering of lifelong high dose immunosuppression, with its limited efficacy, adverse effects, and high direct and indirect costs, along with addressing several key challenges of nTreg treatment, such as easy and robust manufacturing, danger of over immunosuppression, interaction with standard care drugs, and functional stability in an inflammatory environment in a useful proof-of-concept disease model.

Design: Investigator initiated, monocentre, nTreg dose escalation, phase I/IIa clinical trial (ONEnTreg13).

Setting: Charité-University Hospital, Berlin, Germany, within the ONE study consortium (funded by the European Union).

Self-limited HBV infection of the recipient does not reactivate after liver transplantation: Observations from a 30-year liver transplant program.

Background: A self-limited hepatitis B infection can reactivate in patients under immunosuppression or chemotherapy (reappearance of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) or HBV-DNA). Exact circumstances of HBV reactivation in patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT) for end-stage liver diseases (ESLD) unrelated to HBV are unknown, and recommendations on HBV prophylaxis remain unclear.

Patients And Methods: Among 1273 liver transplants, 168 patients with a self-limited HBV hepatitis B infection prior to LT were identified from our prospective liver transplant database.

Living-Donor Liver Transplant: An Analysis of Postoperative Outcome and Health-Related Quality of Life in Liver Donors.

Objectives: Living-donor liver transplant represents an established alternative to deceased-donor liver transplant. The procedure is considered safe for donors; however, concerns about the donors' health-related quality of life and health status have not been fully addressed. Here, we aimed to assess the health-related quality of life and postoperative and 1-year clinical outcomes in living liver transplant donors.

The 28-year incidence of de novo malignancies after liver transplantation: A single-center analysis of risk factors and mortality in 1616 patients.

De novo malignancies (DNMs) are one of the leading causes of late mortality after liver transplantation (LT). We analyzed 1616 consecutive patients who underwent LT between 1988 and 2006 at our institution. All patients were prospectively observed over a study period of 28 years by our own outpatient clinic.

Outcome analysis of laparoscopic incisional hernia repair and risk factors for hernia recurrence in liver transplant patients.

Introduction: Incisional hernia is a common complication after liver transplantation (LT). Immunosuppression, obesity, and use of steroids are known risk factors. The purpose of the retrospective study was to summarize and evaluate experiences and results of laparoscopic intraperitoneal onlay mesh (IPOM) hernia repair.

Murine cervical heart transplantation model using a modified cuff technique.

Mouse models are of special interest in research since a wide variety of monoclonal antibodies and commercially defined inbred and knockout strains are available to perform mechanistic in vivo studies. While heart transplantation models using a suture technique were first successfully developed in rats, the translation into an equally widespread used murine equivalent was never achieved due the technical complexity of the microsurgical procedure. In contrast, non-suture cuff techniques, also developed initially in rats, were successfully adapted for use in mice(1-3).

Long-term outcome in kidney transplant recipients over 70 years in the Eurotransplant Senior Kidney Transplant Program: a single center experience.

Background: Kidney transplantation in the elderly is complicated by comorbidities and a higher incidence of death. The Eurotransplant Senior Program (ESP) has been established to allocate kidneys from older donors to the increasing number of older recipients. In this retrospective, single center data analysis, we compare the outcome of recipients older than 70 years with younger recipients transplanted under the ESP protocol.

Alemtuzumab in solid organ transplantation and in composite tissue allotransplantation.

Alemtuzumab (Campath®, Genzyme Corporation, MA, USA) is a potent monoclonal antilymphocyte, anti-CD52 antibody. Since the 1980s, alemtuzumab has been used extensively in organ transplantation as an induction agent - also with the aim of avoiding or reducing maintenance immunosuppression. We herein review the literature on alemtuzumab in solid organ and composite tissue allotransplantation with an emphasis on clinical and mechanistic aspects of alemtuzumab.