Circulating Vesicular-bound HLA-G as Noninvasive Predictive Biomarker of CLAD After Lung Transplantation.

Background: Circulating extracellular vesicles (EVs) have shown promising results as noninvasive biomarkers for predicting disease outcomes in solid organ transplantation. Because in situ graft cell expression of the tolerogenic molecule HLA-G is associated with acceptance after lung transplantation (LTx), we hypothesized that plasma EV-bound HLA-G (HLA-GEV) levels could predict chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) development.

Methods: We analyzed 78 LTx recipients from the Cohort-for-Lung-Transplantation cohort, all in a stable (STA) state within the first year post-LTx.